Recent research has emphasized the importance of conveyance losses associated with the deposition of suspended sediment on river flood plains during flood events. Such deposition also has important implications for the accumulation of sediment-associated nutrients in flood-plain sinks. Use of 137 Cs measurements in combination with information on downcore variations in the total-P content of flood-plain sediment cores affords a means of documenting recent rates of phosphorus accumulation and of investigating recent changes in the total-P content of the suspended sediment deposited on river flood plains. Results are presented for sediment cores collected from the flood plains of 20 British rivers. Average rates of total-P accumulation since 1963 range from 1.3 to 11.6 g m -2 year -1 , and estimates of the increase in the total-P content of suspended sediment deposited on the individual flood plains over the period 1950-1992 range from 10 to 170%.
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