Large-Scale Impacts of Land-Use Change in a Scottish Farming Catchment

Abstract

A catchment is an area of land defined by the origins and discharges of all tributary streams feeding large rivers flowing into the sea. It is therefore a natural bio-physical unit distinct from adjacent catchments and forms the obvious basis for integrated environmental management policies. In Europe, river catchments tend to be dominated by agriculture, at least at lower altitudes. In the case of the Ythan catchment (Fig. 15.1), Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where the river rises at only a few hundred metres, more than 90% of the land area is now under agricultural production. Much of this is arable crops like wheat, barley, and oil-seed rape, which demand high inputs of chemical nitrogen. The Ythan catchment also hosts large numbers of pigs and other livestock (and also some of the authors of this book).