Facility
Allt a'Mharcaidh Catchment

The Allt a'Mharcaidh catchment lies on the western flank of the Cairngorm Mountains. The catchment area is 979 ha and drains to the River Feshie, a tributary of the River Spey. The catchment rises from 325 m at the sampling station to 1111 m at Sgoran Dubh Mor. Subalpine soils cover 60% and alpine soils and rankers 40% of the catchment area. The underlying geology is intrusive biotite-granite of Lower Old Red Sandstone age. The Allt a'Mharcaidh catchment is extensively studied. As well as being a UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network site it is subject to both terrestrial and freshwater monitoring by the Environmental Change Network, is a secondary site for the UK Eutrophying and Acidifying atmospheric Pollutants (UKEAP) network and is also in the UK National Ammonia Monitoring Network and the UNECE International Cooperative Programme Integrated Monitoring Project. Data from the Allt a'Mharcaidh are contributed to the European Long-Term Ecosystem Research Network (LTER Europe) and the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) programme.