DAEMONS has now been up and running for just over a year. Despite the logistical problems caused by COVID, monthly sampling has gone ahead every month except for April. January 2021 was the final month for the routine sampling programme led by Filip and Sara. There aren’t many daylight hours in January, so head torches were needed for an epic 12 hour field day. There’s also the time-consuming process of collecting lake samples under ice to contend with.
What happens next for DAEMONS? Last year we had planned four seasonal synoptic campaigns to sample fifty lakes and rivers, and fifty coastal locations. They were cancelled due to travel restrictions, and seem unlikely to happen until at least the latter half of 2021. So now we have a window of time to analyse lab and field data, and to start to draft manuscripts. We hope that, sooner or later, circumstances will allow all the project team to make it to the Gårdsjön Research Catchment for sampling and paper writing. Tuesday 8th September was the meeting of the Gårdsjön foundation. Because several of the DAEMONS sampling sites are within the Gårdsjön catchment, Filip attended to present an overview of the project and results so far. The preliminary data show distinct patterns between the four land uses (forest, lake, agriculture, mire), and some degree of consistency within each land use grouping. One clear finding is that the small percentage of agricultural land within the entire Anråse catchment appears to be responsible for a large proportion of phosphorus export. Phosphorus concentrations at the outflow of the Anråse catchment then appear to be a mix of the inputs from the three tributary rivers Rördalsån, Lerån, and Porsån. Of course, these early findings may not hold true for the duration of the project as more sampling takes place and more data are generated, but it’s certainly an encouraging start. The Gårdsjön foundation has been organising scientific meetings, so-called Gårdsjökonferens, held periodically in Stenungsund. Our new DAEMONS results inspired the discussion on organising the next (8th) meeting in spring 2022. The conference theme “From source to the sea” has been discussed, which would fit perfectly for presenting the future DAEMONS results at the meeting. Figure showing box plots of total phosphorus concentration for streams in different land uses (agriculture, forest, mire), lakes, and the four rivers.
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