Temperature Monitoring

Overview

Marine Scotland are doing a lot of research into how our rivers can best be protected from some of the worst impacts of climate change. They need temperature data from a selection of river systems across Scotland to build into a special model that will be able to show where the best locations are to plants trees to keep river water nice and cool. It will also show which rivers need trees the most by looking at things like altitude and which direction the river is flowing. We know it is very important to prevent warming where we can as fish species such as Atlantic salmon, sea trout and Arctic char need cold water to survive, and so we have got involved by hosting a temperature network in the Forth and Teith catchment.

We have been supplied with 20 temperature loggers that are deployed throughout the catchment. They will stay in place in the river for a year, and take the temperature of the water once a minute during that time. Our staff will download the data regularly and send it to Marine Scotland for analysis. The locations have been chosen above and below tributaries coming in, and above and below lochs so that the variation in temperature that they cause will be included in the resulting model.

Everyone knows that tree planting is very important, and we try to do a lot of it in the Forth District, but as with all organisations, resources are limited, whether to buy the trees themselves, or to spend time organising planting parties to put them in the ground. If we can make an accurate assessment as to where trees are going to provide the most benefit in stabilising water temperature, we can target those areas first. For example:

• A river flowing north to south needs more trees than one flowing west to east to provide the same reduction in temperature;
• The effect of planting is greater in slower flowing rivers i.e. those on flat land rather than on steep land; and
• The effect of planting is greatest in rivers that are shallow and about 10m wide.

The result of this work will be a very accurate model showing where the greatest benefits of tree planting will be obtained, and then we can plan our tree planting accordingly.

For more details, visit the Marine Scotland website. 

Funder

 Marine Scotland Science & the Forth District Salmon Fishery Board.