The Natural History of Slapton Ley

The Slapton Cycleau Project

The Slapton catchment is the smallest of the 11 at just 48km² (a tenth the size of its Cycleau neighbour, the Dart) and is probably the most rural - there are just four small villages within the catchment and very little industry. The catchment’s estuaries are impounded by a shingle ridge, so forming a freshwater lake behind it – Slapton Ley. This lake is naturally slightly eutrophic but over the last 60 years has become highly enriched leading to annual summer algal blooms since 1976. The nutrient enrichment is also causing detriment to the reedbeds, jeopardising this National Nature Reserve’s ability to host passage and breeding birds. Increased sedimentation in that time has also led to flooding of roads in the catchment and the speeded-up terrestrialisation of parts of the wetland system in the Ley.

The catchment and the Ley have been studied and researched in some detail since 1960 when Slapton Ley Field Centre opened to students. The centre offers visits to A-level and university students, and so has drawn the attention of university researchers in some numbers. This research has shown that the cause of the pollution in the Slapton catchment is mostly agricultural with some also coming from human sewage. Unfortunately this research has never been kept in an accessible format and so, while there is much highly useful data at the centre, it is not widely used or known about.   The two key objectives of the Slapton Cycleau Project are:

• Improve the provision, accessibility and quality of catchment information available to the public and specialist audiences, and use this information to guide catchment management at Slapton.
• Carry out actions to raise awareness of the catchment and its environment with various audiences, promoting best environmental practice and carrying out physical improvements where appropriate