This literature review is based on 40 study locations in Europe. Small basins with predominant forest cover were selected for a comparison of the dissolved nutrient loads in the streams draining these areas, and little or low intensity forest management was of prime interest.
Regardless of the various methods of analyzing and calculating nutrient loads it was found that as the mean nitrate- nitrogen concentrations vary considerably (0.02 to 4 mg NO₃-N.1^-1), a general decrease with increasing mean annual streamflow is observed. Consequently the reported loads show much less variation. In most forest areas these loads are less than 4,5 kg NO₃-N ha^-1.a^-1, in cold and humid regions even below 3 kg NO₃-N ha^-1.a^-1.
Clearfelling and fertilization on a large scale in forest lands seem not to be widely practised. European forestry mainly concentrates on thinning and small scale clearfelling practices. The limited information available on the effects of these practices, however, points to extreme care.
It was not the intention to include North American and British results of research in this review. Competent respective contributions are presented elsewhere during the workshop.