Willow Research at the Centre for Aquatic Plant Management. Ecotoxicology Group Genetic Diversity Group CES Home Willow Research at the Centre for Aquatic Plant Management. Waterways in Britain form a very large, very diverse, linear habitat, vulnerable to many forms of damage. Banks can be eroded by flow, either slowly by prolonged exposure to normal flow patterns, or much more rapidly after storm flow or flash flood events.
Water quality can suffer from diffuse pollution by nutrients or pesticides.
Both these types of damage can be prevented or, alleviated, by planting willows alongside watercourses. Two PhD projects have addressed these aims, one is complete, and one is due to completion in 2001. The first by Richard Edwards, funded jointly by IACR-Long Ashton and the Environment Agency investigated the ability of different willow clones to take up and store nitrate and the herbicide atrazine, from hydroponic growth media. This work has direct relevance to the design of nutrient barrier strips for protection of agricultural watercourses. The second project, being carried out by Alison Collins of Nottingham University with funding from the Lawes Trust Scholarship Scheme is on the interaction of willow roots with soil.