Organic matter and nutrient inputs to the Humber Estuary, England

Estuaries are sinks for organic matter and nutrients entering both from their catchments and also from the adjacent lands and urban areas and in turn they are sources of such materials to the adjacent coast. The present paper quantifies the relative amounts of natural and anthropogenic organic matter and nutrients entering the Humber Estuary, Eastern England, including the allochthonous and autochthonous materials, those from urban and industrial sewage and from the catchment drainage of arable land. These data thus give a budget for the estuary which in turn answers questions fundamental to the management of the estuary. The estimations within the study have been carried out against a background of designating estuaries under the European Union Urban Waste-water Treatment Directive and the EU Nitrates Directive. The assessment has particularly addressed the question, related to the former Directive, of whether the Humber Estuary is eutrophic or likely to become eutrophic unless management measures are taken. Thus the paper indicates the nature and value of control measures such as treatment plant upgrading and the designation of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones. The paper includes the recent national and European discussions on the designation of areas under these Directives. Finally, the study has allowed a quantification of the present organic inputs to the estuary in comparison to those entering prior to large scale land-claim which had removed natural organic-producing wetlands.