This study was carried out during winter 1992-93, a relatively wet period; with the working hypothesis that, since the site appeared healthily wet during field inspections (allowing water samples to be taken) the drought conditions prevailing in eastern England during 1988-92 must be at least partly the explanation for the subjective impression by EN staff of hydrological change over that period. However, there was a secondary hypothesis that drought stress had potentially compounded an existing human impact, promoting a threshold change, from which recovery may or may not be possible and in which management of both human and drought impacts may play a role.
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