Reducing nutrients in our rivers and the Solent
Nutrient Pollution
The high input levels of nitrogen and phosphorus to our water environment are causing eutrophication. The resulting blooms of green algae are impacting negatively on the area’s protected habitats and species. Algal growths in our chalk rivers, cause oxygen depletion, harming fish and aquatic life. Where rivers meet the sea, the growths form dense mats, which frequently cover the Solent’s mudflats, stopping oxygen reaching the animals in the sediment and causing mass mortality, especially in hot weather. Algae also forms a barrier to many birds which rely on probing the mud or picking off tiny invertebrates from its surface. These mats can also smother some of our most threatened habitats: seagrass beds and saltmarshes, choking them to death and risking erosion.
The Wildlife Trust's Nutrient Reduction Programme
Our programme, in simple terms, will provide a means of mitigating and reducing the nutrient impact of planned housing as well as creating new habitats for wildlife.
"Our local seas are being suffocated by untenable levels of pollution and we have to find ways of reducing the levels of nitrates entering the Solent. By taking the most polluting land and re-wilding it, not only are we relieving the pressure on our marine environment, but we will also create wonderful wildlife-rich habitat, reducing pollution, capturing carbon and helping nature to recover. We must now ensure that we are creating great places for both people and wildlife to live and thrive." - Debbie Tann, Chief Executive Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
Our Nutrient Reduction Programme is demonstrating a way of mitigating and reducing the impact of phosphates and nitrates in the rivers and seas, from planned housing developments, through the creation of new nature reserves on formerly intensively managed farmland - creating new habitats for local wildlife and helping nature to recover.