River Dart Research Articles

Alice Oswald's Poetical Cartography of the River Dart

In this paper I want to define and describe Alice Oswald’s «echolocating poetics». First, I will explore how Oswald’s polemic relationship with the label of «nature poet» points towards an original poetical proposal that tries to separate itself from some of the characteristics of the traditional nature poetry. Then, by analysing Oswald’s poem «Owl», I will propose a characterisation of Oswald’s echolocating poetics which is based on a vindication of the sense of hearing and a subsequent critique to the pre-eminence of the eye and the ensuing act of looking as privileged ways through which human knows and places itself into the natural world. Finally, the reading of Dart (2002) will present Oswald’s critique to the cartographical reason that, for her, is associated with the so criticised privilege of sight. The ear-based concept of echolocation is there the tool that Oswald uses to draw a contrapuntal map of the river Dart that defies the (anthropocentric) epistemological assumptions that are hidden under the human device of the map.

“This is water’s world/And the works of men are vanishing”: Hydronymy & anonymity honour water in Alice Oswald’s Dart & Memorial

Alice Oswald’s full-length poems Dart (2002) and Memorial (2013) draw attention to the ecology of water in the 21st century by excavating stories and myths around place names, specifically waterways. Hydronyms for the River Dart and the potamoi and naiads of Greco-Roman mythology re-envision history through narrative and its relationship to sites or places. While Dart underscores the human lore around the river by the same name, Memorial rejects human desire for immortality and glory with the remembrance of the Iliad’s dead who return to earth and life cycles with the aid of water. Poetry that focuses on place and history of place names inspires curiosity to rebuild human and non-human relationships.

Connection, disconnection and the self in Alice Oswald’s Dart

This article examines how Alice Oswald’s book-length poem Dart complicates and extends debates about the local and global. Aspects of environmentalism that focus on a physical connection with a local environment have been criticised by those such as Ursula K. Heise and Val Plumwood, who argue that such a connection is insufficient and stress the need for a greater understanding of global interconnectedness. Whilst Dart has a distinctly local emphasis in that it focuses on the river Dart in Devon and the landscape that it flows through, the poem’s envisioning of this specific geographical feature is far from being static or isolated. In addition to combining different spatial and temporal elements, Oswald’s poem transcends the physical through its engagement with the river’s spiritual and mythological aspects. The ‘fragmented’ structure used to achieve this is read as a literary example of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s ‘bricolage’ since the idea of bricolage is also relevant in relation to ideas of the self. Michael Leyshon and Jacob Bull’s work on ‘the bricolage of the here’ is used to examine the relationship between place and the identities of Dart’s characters. This enables the ‘local/global’ debate to be seen in the context of the relationship between self and world as discussed in the work of Charles Taylor and David Borthwick.

A case of isolation by distance and short-term temporal stability of population structure in brown trout (Salmo trutta) within the River Dart, southwest England.

Salmonid fishes exhibit high levels of population differentiation. In particular, the brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) demonstrates complex within river drainage genetic structure. Increasingly, these patterns can be related to the underlying evolutionary models, of which three scenarios (member-vagrant hypothesis, metapopulation model and panmixia) facilitate testable predictions for investigations into population structure. We analysed 1225 trout collected from the River Dart, a 75 km long river located in southwest England. Specimens were collected from 22 sample sites across three consecutive summers (2001–2003) and genetic variation was examined at nine microsatellite loci. A hierarchical analysis of molecular variance revealed that negligible genetic variation was attributed among temporal samples. The highest levels of differentiation occurred among samples isolated above barriers to fish movement, and once these samples were removed, a significant effect of isolation-by-distance was observed. These results suggest that, at least in the short-term, ecological events are more important in shaping the population structure of Dart trout than stochastic extinction events, and certainly do not contradict the expectations of a member-vagrant hypothesis. Furthermore, individual-level spatial autocorrelation analyses support previous recommendations for the preservation of a number of spawning sites spaced throughout the tributary system to conserve the high levels of genetic variation identified in salmonid species.

Assessing the long‐term genetic impact of historical stocking events on contemporary populations of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar

Abstract Supplementation of wild fish with non‐native or domesticated fish is common practice. However, these stocked and native fish differ both ecologically and genetically and, in the wild, they interact in a multitude of ways, often with negative repercussions for the native population. This study assessed the long‐term genetic impact of historical stocking activities on a contemporary population of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L. During the 1960s salmon from hatcheries in Scotland and Iceland were transplanted to the River Dart, England. Microsatellite loci were used to assess the current level of population admixture between samples taken from the source location of the stocked fish during the 1960s and contemporary Dart populations. After allowances were made for natural genetic relationships between donor and recipient populations, the long‐term impact of the historical stocking events on a catchment scale appears minimal. However, one tributary consistently reflected closer genetic relationships with the donor populations, indicating a possible long‐term impact on a localised scale.

A Novel Method for Mapping Critical Loads Across a River Network: Application to the River Dart, Southwest England

To date, estimates of freshwater critical loads have beenbased on a single sample site within a given area, in theUK the `most sensitive' surface water in each 10 km gridsquare. The critical loads obtained are thus highlydependent on the sites chosen, and at a relatively coarsespatial resolution. To produce a higher resolutioncritical load assessment, the PEARLS (Prediction ofAcidification and Recovery on a Landscape Scale)procedure has been used to estimate critical loads acrossa large (248 km2), partially acid-sensitivecatchment in Southwest England. PEARLS utilises availablesoils and land-use databases, and sampled streamchemistry data, to derive characteristic runoffcompositions for a set of landscape types. Mixingequations are then used to calculate runoff chemistry,and subsequently critical loads, throughout the streamnetwork. Results show major spatial variability, withcritical loads lowest in streams draining peat-moorlandheadwaters, and generally increasing downstream asagricultural land contributes an increasing proportion ofrunoff. The 5th percentile freshwater critical loadfor the catchment is estimated at 0.29 keq H+ ha-1yr-1,and critical loads are exceeded for around 40% of totalstream length. The PEARLS methodology provides a novelopportunity to assess the spatial variability infreshwater critical loads, and to provide estimates ofexceedance at whole catchment scale. It has potentialapplication in the assessment of surface watersensitivity to acidification across wider areas in the UKand elsewhere.

“The Fishacre Tribe”: the Family Origins of Richard Fishacre OP

The starting point of the enquiry described here was a direct result of discussions at the Fishacre Colloquium. The existence of a Martin de Fishacre who was a witness in the early 1240’s to the Inquisition, now called Testa Nevill was identified. The place-name enquiry to find the Fishacre where Martin lived began with scrutiny of current Ordnance Survey maps and identified three places all with the element, Fishacre, in the name within a few miles of each other in the hundred of Haytor in South Devon. They are Fishacre Barton, a farm, in the parish of Broadhempston; Combefishacre, a string village settlement in a small deep valley about four and a half miles to the east; and Coleton Fishacre, a very small settlement above the cliff top between Kingswear and Brixham. Examination of the publications of the English Place-Name Society showed that there are no other settlements in England and Wales with this unusual element of “fishacre” in the name. This part of South Devon with the streams flowing towards the river Dart on its east bank and the coastal peninsula between Dartmouth and Torbay contains the origin of the name, Fishacre. So far, it is uncertain which place was the first to have the name Fishacre. In the Exon. Domesday Book Combefishacre is recorded as Comba while Coleton Fishacre is recorded as Coletona. Broadhempston is referred to in the Exon Domesday but not Fishacre Barton, which is about two miles southwest of the village.

Predicting Sedimentgraphs for a Small Agricultural Catchment

The key components of a sedimentgraph prediction procedure for small agricultural catchments are outlined in the paper. An instantaneous unit sedimentgraph (IUSG) based on the IUH and on a dimensionless sediment concentration distribution is developed, and used for transforming the sediment produced during a specified rainfall duration into a sedimentgraph. Rainfall-runoff-suspended sediment transport data from the River Dart basin, in Devon, UK, are used to evaluate several relationships for sediment yield estimation. The relationship between the lag time of the direct runoff hydrograph and the sedimentgraph is analysed, and the use of these lag times for estimating an IUSG (sediment routing) parameter is examined. The effectiveness of the proposed sedimentgraph prediction procedure is demonstrated by the successful regeneration of a measured sedimentgraph.

Nitrate behaviour in streamflow from a grassland catchment in Devon, U.K.

NO 3N levels and loadings in the River Dart, Devon, U.K. have been intensively monitored during the study period February 1975–January 1983, and NO 3N behaviour in streamflow is compared with that of Mg which has predominantly contrasting origins and controls in runoff. A strongly developed annual regime characterises daily mean NO 3N concentrations which peak at 4.5 mg l −1 in December and reach a minimum of 1.1 mg l −1 in early autumn, and this regime is reflected in a positive relationship between NO 3N concentration and discharge. Storm-period NO 3N behaviour also exhibits a marked seasonal variation, and “dilution” responses are typical of the winter period whereas a “concentration” effect is more characteristic of summer months and is attributed to the influence of soil throughflow. Spring and autumn are associated with a transition in storm-period behaviour, and the reaction of NO 3N concentrations during individual events or over a sequence of storms at any time of the year may also vary in response to a complex interplay of factors. NO 3N transport is more strongly biased towards storm events than is Mg, and more than 50% of the total NO 3N load was removed in only 10% of the study period. The mean annual NO 3N load for the study basin (24 kg ha −1) is higher than that recorded in many grassland catchments of the U.K. but does not reflect an unusually high rate of fertiliser application. Unlike several other arable and grassland drainage basins studied in Britain, there is no evidence in the River Dart of a significant upward trend in NO 3N concentrations and loads since 1975.

The relationship of slope and stream channel form in the River Dart, Devon

A method of relating channel slope and channel capacity is required for studies of channel geometry, and three methods are illustrated by analysis of field measurements from 50 sites in the river Dart of mid-Devon, England. Firstly, the inverse relationship between channel capacity and slope is established, and map slope values appear to be as useful as field slope measurements. Secondly, the relation between net channel slope and the rate of increase of channel capacity relative to drainage area for six individual tributaries within the overall channel network, shows that the rate of increase of channel capacity is least where relief ratios are highest. Thirdly, a multiple regression relationship between drainage area, Da, and channel capacity, c, and slope, s M, may provide a useful index of channel morphology, in the form Da∝c s M 0.75 .

The Denudation Chronology of the River Dart

The Denudation Chronology of the River Dart

The history of the River Dart, Devon

Summary The river Dart is about 30 miles long with a fall of 1800 feet. The pattern of its drainage on Dartmoor, omitting portions controlled by jointing, is explained by a scarp-land, originating in Lower Oligocene time on a marine plain sloping east, subsequently tilted southwards. Evidence is given for a river terrace graded to 1150 feet, and for the 1000-feet and 800-feet terraces of Barrow with an intermediate 920-feet. The sea then occupied a gulf near Holne. The shore shifted to the vicinity of Teignmouth and terraces graded to about 690, 595, 505 and 430 feet were formed. The great diversion southward took place in the 430-feet period. During the Sicilian, Upper Ambersham and Ambersham terraces, the river flowed by Brixham. Later terraces followed the latest diversion to Dartmouth. A terrace along an ancient valley is ascribed to the effect of beheading. The Dart valley above 1500 feet shows signs of glaciation. The relation of eyots to nicks is considered. Finally the question of subaerial versus marine planation is discussed and old sea-levels compared with those of the Mediterranean.

The river dart

The river dart

The River Dart

The River Dart

On the Rock-basins in the Granite of the Dartmoor District, Devonshire

On the Rock-basins in the Granite of the Dartmoor District, Devonshire

XXXIII. Of the torpidity of swallows and martins. By James Cornish, Surgeon, at Totnes, Devonshire, in sundry letters to the honourable Daines Barrington, F. R. S. and Dr. Maty, Sec. R. S

LETTER I. TO DR. MATY. Sir, As it has long been a desideratum among the naturalists to decide, with certainty, whether swallows and martins remain in a torpid state during the winter, or are birds of passage; I shall make no apology for troubling you with this letter, as it determines one part of the question, as I imagine, beyond doubt. In the beginning of November, being fishing on the banks of the river Dart, which runs at the bottom of a very steep hill, from the side of which project several large rocks, overgrown with ivy and thicket; I was at once surprized with the sight of a great number of martins. Now the season of the year being so advanced, I desisted from my amusement, that I might the more carefully observe the birds, which, I concluded, had been brought out of their winter quarters by the fineness of the afternoon, it being remarkably pleasant and warm for the time of the year; the Sun at that time darting its rays directly against the rocks, just opposite to which I had fixed my station.