ICP Integrated Monitoring

Acidification and eutrophication studies

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Martin ForsiusFinnish Environment Institute (SYKE)

ICP IM Programme Centre

Main tasks

Assessment of relationships between critical load exceedances and empirical impact indicators at ICP IM sites

Biodiversity assessment – Literature review and first data analyses

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BackgroundBackground

European databases and maps of critical loads have been instrumental in effect-based protocols to the UNECE CLRTAP.

For testing and validation of the key concepts in the critical load calculations, it is important to study the link between critical thresholds of acidification and eutrophication of the ecosystems and empirical impact indicators.

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Study sites: European IM networkStudy sites: European IM network1) Calculate the site-specific critical loads for acidification and eutrophication for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and their exceedances (ExCL) 2) and present relationships between ExCL and surface water chemistry measurements at 18-24 European ICP IM sites

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Materials and methods 1/3Materials and methods 1/3 Mass balance critical loads

• Acidification CLA: Steady State Water Chemistry (SSWC) (Henriksen and Posch 2001, UBA 2004)

• Eutrophication CLnutN: Mass Balance model for nutrient nitrogen (UBA 2004)

• For a selection of 18 IM sites from 10 countries (AT, CZ, DE, EE, FI, GB, LT, LV, NO, SE) for which runoff water chemistry and runoff measurement data were available

Exceedances: deposition estimates at IM sitesExCLA = S dep NAT2000 – CLA

ExCLnutN = N dep NAT2000 – CLnutN

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Materials and methods 2/3Materials and methods 2/3

CL for eutrophication: empirical critical load of nutrient nitrogen CLempN

(Bobbink and Hettelingh 2011)• Based on empirical studies on the response of natural and semi-

natural ecosystems to nitrogen deposition.• CLempN are given for a groups of ecosystems, classified according

to the EUNIS-European Nature Information System- habitat classification for Europe

• 24 IM sites

Exceedances: ExCLempN = N dep NAT2000 - CLempN

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Materials and methods 3/3Materials and methods 3/3

Empirical impact indicators• Acidification: annual average runoff water

concentrations and fluxes in the period 2000-2002 for key acidification parameters such as Acid Neutralising Capacity ANC = (Ca+Mg+Na+K) – (SO4+Cl+NO3), hydrogen-ion (H+) and non-marine sulphate (xSO4),

• and eutrophication: total inorganic nutrient nitrogen (TIN = NO3+NH4)

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ExCL: nr of sites protected/not protected in 2000(NAT2000 projection)

ExCL: nr of sites protected/not protected in 2000(NAT2000 projection)

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ExCLA

ExCLnutN

ExCLempN

Good agreement between ExCLA and ANC and H+Good agreement between ExCLA and ANC and H+

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Conc.

Flux

-cc -0.67p < 0.05

-cc -0.84p < 0.05

-cc 0.63p < 0.05

-cc 0.60p < 0.05

ExCLnutN / ExCLempN vs. TIN (NO3 + NH4)ExCLnutN / ExCLempN vs. TIN (NO3 + NH4)

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Conc.

Flux

-cc 0.61p < 0.05

-cc 0.35p < 0.1

Concluding remarks on CL studiesConcluding remarks on CL studies

At the majority of the IM sites (72%), CLA was not exceeded

Instead, CLempN and CLnutN were exceeded at 7578% of the sites

There was a relatively good agreement between ExCLA and ANC and H+ in runoff water

Leaching of N was higher for sites with higher ExCLempN and ExCLnutN

Evidence on the link between modelled critical thresholds and empirical impact indicators

Scientific paper in preparation, updated results will also be used for WGE ex-post scenario analyses

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Biodiversity assessment

Review of published results from monitoring and analyses made within the ICP IM subprogrammes Trunk epiphytes (EP), Aerial green algae (AL), Understory vegetation and trees on intensive plots (VG) and Vegetation structure and species cover (VS).

Preliminary results of data analyses.Results presented in ICP IM Annual Report 2011.

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Relationship between significant time trends of forest floor species and Ellenberg indicator values N (nutrient availability), R (soil pH), L (light availability), F (moisture)

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0 1 2 3 4 5

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Nutrients

Ellenberg N

coef

ficie

nt o

f tim

e tr

end

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

-0.2

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

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Acidity

Ellenberg R

coef

ficie

nt o

f tim

e tr

end

0 2 4 6 8

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Light

Ellenberg L

coef

ficie

nt o

f tim

e tr

end

0 2 4 6 8

-0.2

0.0

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0.6

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Moisture

Ellenberg F

coef

ficie

nt o

f tim

e tr

end

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Concluding remarks on biodiversity studies

Lichens in high pollution regions in central Europe are more affected than in the Nordic countries.

Algae or lichens differ in their suitability as indicators. At low deposition sites, algae may be more suitable as indicator than lichens.

Species changes are highly variable between sites. The found significant changes are restricted to few species and the relationship with air pollution is not very clear.

Further analyses will focus on community changes and changes of diversity using indicators. The results will again be compared with CL exceedance.

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Thank you for your attention