Nene Phosphate in Sediment Investigation - Environment Agency Project REF:30258 Water Framework Directive Report OR/13/031 BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Water Framework Directive COMMERCIAL REPORT OR/13/031 Nene Phosphate in Sediment Investigation - Environment The National Grid and other Agency Project REF:30258 Ordnance Survey data © Crown Copyright and database rights 2013. Ordnance Survey Licence No. 100021290. A.M. Tye, M.D. Hurst, A.K.A.P. Barkwith Keywords River Nene, Sediment, Phosphorus, Phosphate, Contributor/editor Environment Agency.. A.M. Tye National Grid Reference SW corner 450000,35359000000 Centre point 480000,380000 NE corner 520000,310000 Front cover River Nene near Thorpe Waterville Bibliographical reference TYE, A.M., HURST, M.D. & Barkwith, A.K.A.P. 2013. Nene Phosphate in Sediment Investigation. Report to the Environment Agency REF:30258 2013. 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Acknowledgements A number of BGS staff contributed greatly towards this project. Barry Rawlins helped write the tender proposal and reviewed the report. Murray Lark and Ben Marchant wrote the statistical code to fit the isotherm and kinetic data respectively as well as providing general statistical advice. Alex Bradley drew the maps. Mick Strutt was invaluable for undertaking the field work, its preparation and looking after all the boat maintenance and driving. Rob Price was our Environment Agency Project Manager and client, providing requirement specification, local knowledge, water body access, health and safety and as well as contributing to the sample collection. i OR/13/031; Final 1 Last modified: 2013/11/29 12:01 Contents Foreword ......................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... i Contents .......................................................................................................................................... ii List of abbreviations and definitions ......................................................................................... vii Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... viii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 2 Material & Methods ............................................................................................................... 2 2.1 The River Nene Catchment ............................................................................................ 2 2.2 Bedrock Geology ............................................................................................................ 3 2.3 Superficial Geology ........................................................................................................ 4 2.4 Sampling Strategy & Site Selection ............................................................................... 4 2.5 Collection of sediments .................................................................................................. 5 2.6 Laboratory Material & Methods ..................................................................................... 6 2.7 Calculating sediment fluxes using a Landscape Evolution model ............................... 10 2.8 Calculations of Total Phosphorus and Phosphate in river sediments and waters ......... 20 3 Results and Discussion ......................................................................................................... 22 3.1 Sediment distribution and depth in the River Nene ...................................................... 22 3.2 Use of probing data in calculations of P sediment volume .......................................... 26 3.3 Bulk Denisty of sediment ............................................................................................. 27 3.4 Particle Size Distribution (PSD) of sediments ............................................................. 27 3.5 Organic matter .............................................................................................................. 29 3.6 TP (TP) in homogenised sediment cores ...................................................................... 31 3.7 Extractable P in homogenised sediment cores ............................................................. 34 3.8 Depth profiles of TP and OEP in sediment cores ......................................................... 37 3.9 Determining the Effective Phosphorus concentrations (EPC0) in sediments ............... 38 3.10 Determining the rate of P uptake or desorption in sediments (kinetics) ................... 39 3.11 River Nene water Chemistry ..................................................................................... 40 3.12 Sediment dynamics ................................................................................................... 43 3.13 Assessing sediment transport dynamics through water bodies using the CDP model43 3.14 A comparison of the CDP model and reported literature values of sediment yield in the Nene catchment ................................................................................................................ 54 3.15 Calculating P loads in the sediments and waters of the River Nene ......................... 62 4 General Discussion and Conclusions .................................................................................. 70 4.1 Sediment Phosphorus Chemistry .................................................................................. 70 4.2 Sediment dynamics within the River System ............................................................... 71 4.3 Implications of results for river management ............................................................... 72 4.4 Further Work ................................................................................................................ 73 ii OR/13/031; Final 1 Last modified: 2013/11/29 12:01 Appendix 1: Bulk Density values for cores. Missing values are where grab samples were taken or are CoreD samples. ....................................................................................................... 75 Appendix 2: Data collected for homogenised cores collected from the River Nene .............. 76 Appendix 3: Data collected for CoreD samples collected from River Nene ............................ 78 References ...................................................................................................................................