UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network

In 2013, the UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network was established. The network expanded the former UK Acid Waters Monitoring Network (UKAWMN), established in 1988, to include a wider range of important long-term research sites in the uplands.

In Scotland, the UKUWMN sites support the delivery of the Coordinated Agenda for Marine, Environment and Rural Affairs Science (CAMERAS) and the   Freshwater Monitoring Action Plan (MAP) providing important evidence on the effects of long-term environmental change on the freshwater environment generally and freshwater fish specifically.

Marine Scotland Science (MSS) provides high precision water quality analysis for the Scottish and Irish sites on the network, collects data on fish populations within Scottish sites and provides data analysis, interpretation and reporting support to the network. MSS also holds temperature data from the network in a dedicated logger database, Freshwater Laboratory Environmental Observation Database (FLEObs).

Loch Ard and Galloway

The Loch Ard and Galloway monitoring sites provide some of the longest, most valuable upland water datasets in Scotland, with operations having continued at some sites since 1976. The sites variously include data on water quality, invertebrate and fish populations. Although initially focussed on the effects of acidification and acid recovery, the datasets now provide important information on long-term environmental and climate change in the uplands. The sites also provide important information on the effects of changes in land-use on water quality and stream temperature, which can help inform future land-use and climate adaptation strategies.