March 2013: The History and Future of British Rivers and Waterways

The theme of the meeting and the listed speakers drew a full house in the Royal Astronomical Society Lecture room. Nine selected presentations by scientists, regulators and enthusiasts dealt with a wide range of topics from river geomorphology, restoration and fundamental ecology to fisheries, ecological and chemical quality and the work of anglers and naturalists in monitoring riverflies. The evening lecture was by Sir John Lawton on the future of conservation with specific reference to rivers and streams.

The speakers showed there was concern that in some areas there was too much interference in the physical structure of rivers and that because of the general interest in rivers at the moment fundamental ecological research was attracting attention and funding. The role of methane in the food chain in rivers was a surprise to much of the audience and suggested that there was much more we did not know about how rivers work. It was also clear that in some regions the chemical and ecological quality of rivers had peaked or even declined slightly. The meeting may have set a precedent for the future.

Presentations from many of the speakers are now available online, click here to go to the event page.

Terry Langford
University of Southampton