Deposition of air pollutants in a wind-exposed forest edge

The atmospheric deposition of air pollutants at a forest edge was studied by means of monitoring canopy throughfall at the edge and at five different parallel lines in the forest behind the edge. The investigation was carried out at a pine forest on the Swedish west coast. Throughfall and bulk deposition samples were analyzed for volume, SO ₄ ^2? , NO ₃ ^? , Cl^?, NH ₄ ⁺ , Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and for pH. The results show that the throughfall flow at the edge was increased substantially for most ions. The ratios in throughfall flows between the edge and the line 50 m into the forest were for SO ₄ ^2? , 1.5, NO ₃ ^? 2.9, NH ₄ ⁺ 2.7, and Na⁺ 3.1. Since this effect is not only valid for forest edges but also for hillsides, hilltops, and edges between stands of different age, etc., there might be substantial areas which get much larger total deposition than the normally considered closed forest.     

Gårdsjön Project: lake acidification,chemistry in catchment runoff,lake liming and microcatchment manipulations

The Gårdsjön Project is an ecosystem approach in studying acid deposition and its effects on terrestrial parts and lakes within a catchment. The study is an attempt to quantify the processes causing the acidification as well as an analyses of the chemical and biological conditions before liming of the lake and manipulations in microcatchments. This paper gives a brief overview of some studies already performed and recently started experiments within the project, such as lake liming, lime application on land, forest fertilization, clearcutting and applications of acid and neutral sulphate on land.     

Effects of nitrogen deposition on the acidification of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

The concentration of ammonium and nitrate in precipitation has increased during this century. The deposition of N compounds (wet + dry) is reaching 30 to 40 kg ha^?1yr^?1 in many areas in Central Europe and above 20 kg in the southern parts of Scandinavia. In extreme situations throughfall data indicate depositions above 60 kg ha^?1yr^?1 in Central Europe and above 40 kg ha^?1yr^?1 in south Sweden. Very high depositions are observed on slopes at forest edges and adjacent to areas with animal farms and manure spreading. In areas with low N deposition almost all deposited N (>95%) will be absorbed in the tree canopies or in the soil. In areas with high deposition an increased outflow is observed which in some cases reach 10 to 15 kg ha-lyr-1. The increased output is an indication of N saturation of the ecosystem and it leads to acidification effects in soils, soilwater, groundwater and surface waters.     

The use of critical load exceedances in abatement strategy planning

Critical loads for sulphur and nitrogen are defined to produce effective control strategies over Europe, such as those of the new sulphur protocol. To determine the critical load exceedances on the European scale it is necessary to simplify and generalize. The spatial variation on a scale smaller than the 150 × 150 km EMEP grid squares is considered for critical loads, via a cumulative frequency distribution and the 95 percentile for the grid square is determined. The deposition is assumed to be uniform over the area and the exceedance over the 95 percentile critical load is determined. In reality, the spatial variation is considerable for critical loads as well as for deposition. Calculations based on the frequency of local critical load exceedances have been made for two grid squares in southern Sweden. Local critical loads for acidity are compared to local deposition. Deposition variations due to pollution gradients within the square and to ecosystem structure have been considered. The results are similar for the two squares. The calculations based on local exceedances on 50×50 km grid squares and consideration to landuse variability, indicate that in order to protect 95% of the ecosystems in the square, emission reductions 25% greater than the large-scale European approach are needed. The effect of enhanced deposition at forest edges is of relatively small importance for the total exceedance.