Critical Loads and Dynamic Risk Assessments: Nitrogen, Acidity and Metals in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

671 Pages·2015·46.51 MB·English

by  Wim de Vries

Environmental Pollution
Volume 25
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University of Reading Department of Soil Science, Reading, United Kingdom
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Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph School of Environmental
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Wim de Vries • Jean-Paul Hettelingh
Maximilian Posch
Editors
Critical Loads and Dynamic
Risk Assessments
Nitrogen, Acidity and Metals in Terrestrial
and Aquatic Ecosystems
1 3
Editors
Wim de Vries Maximilian Posch
Alterra Wageningen University RIVM – Coordination Centre for Effects
and Research Centre Bilthoven
Wageningen The Netherlands
The Netherlands
Jean-Paul Hettelingh
RIVM – Coordination Centre for Effects
Bilthoven
The Netherlands
ISSN 1566-0745
Environmental Pollution
ISBN 978-94-017-9507-4 ISBN 978-94-017-9508-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-9508-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014960242
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
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Foreword
Initial concern on the negative effects of acidic deposition on natural ecosystems
was voiced in Scandinavia during the 1970s, where fish death was attributed to sur-
face water acidification caused by elevated sulphur deposition. In the beginning of
the 1980s, extensive forest damage in Central Europe linked to high levels of acidic
deposition, led to wide-spread public and political concern for the vitality of forests.
In 1979 member states of the UN Economic Commission for Europe adopted the
Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. This Convention mobil-
ised scientific research—including work by many authors in this book—for the
support of air pollution abatement policies to mitigate impacts on human health and
the environment.
During the 1980s critical loads were derived for acidification and nitrogen-i nduced
eutrophication as early warning indicators of excessive atmospheric deposition of
sulphur and nitrogen. Near the end of the 1990s, critical loads were also developed
to assess the adverse effects of heavy metal deposition. In concert, various dynamic
models were developed to evaluate the temporal impacts of atmospheric deposition
of acidic and eutrophying compounds and heavy metals on ecosystems.
This book provides an overview of the development of critical load research
for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and applications in support of air pollution
abatement policies during the past 30 years. It consists of 26 chapters, divided over
five major themes:
1. Assessment of indicators and thresholds for air pollutant impacts;
2. Empirical and process-model based critical loads of nitrogen, acidity and metals
for characteristic ecosystems;
3. Dynamic modelling approaches for the temporal assessment of abiotic changes
owing to atmospheric deposition of nitrogen, sulphur and heavy metals at the
site-specific scale;
4. Critical loads and dynamic model applications on a regional scale in Europe,
Asia and North America;
5. Integrated assessment of changes in environmental quality and ecosystem ser-
vices as affected by air pollution under a changing climate.
v
vi Foreword
The book concludes with a review of the critical loads approach in the context of
uncertainty and of possible future scientific and policy directions.
This book marks the successful collaboration over more than 30 years, between
researchers in the field of environmental impacts of air pollution in general, and be-
tween RIVM and Alterra in particular. We congratulate the authors of this scientific
record of achievements, and expect that this book will serve as a basis to stimulate
effects-based research for the challenges ahead.
Prof.dr. A.N. van der Zande Ir. K. Slingerland
D irector General Director General
N ational Institute for Public Health Alterra Wageningen University
a nd the Environment (RIVM) and Research Centre (WUR)
Acknowledgements
The methods and results presented in this book would be inexistent without the
close collaboration with communities of scientists that work under the Effects Pro-
gramme of the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution
(LRTAP Convention). Of similar importance are the research programmes of the
European Union, North America and China, that enhanced the collaboration with,
and between, institutions and individuals from various fields of environmental sci-
ence that resulted in contributions to this book.
The stimulus of 25 years of bilateral collaboration between the Coordination Cen-
tre for Effects (CCE) at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
(RIVM) and the Alterra Research Centre at Wageningen University and Research
Centre (WUR), as well as the multi-lateral collaboration with the colleagues implied
above, has been instrumental both to the idea, about five years ago, and the realisa-
tion of this work.
This book would not have materialized without the support of many. The editors
wish to acknowledge in particular:
• The Directorate for Climate, Air and Noise of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastruc-
ture and the Environment for their continued support both of the CCE and Alterra
activities enabling the design and compilation of knowledge on impacts of air
pollution for European and national environmental policies,
• The Ministry of Economic Affairs that funded part of the work under the stra-
tegic research program “Sustainable spatial development of ecosystems, land-
scapes, seas and regions",
• The management of RIVM and Alterra for providing resources needed for the
accomplishment of this effort,
• The Working Group on Effects and Task Force of the International Cooperative
Programme on the Modelling and Mapping of Critical Levels and Loads and Air
Pollution Effects, Risks and Trends (ICP M&M) under the LRTAP Convention
for inspiration, collaboration, and relevant application options for the support of
European air pollution policies,
• The EMEP Meteorological Synthesizing Centres East and West and the EMEP
Centre for Integrated Assessment at the International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis for their collaboration in the field of atmospheric dispersion
and integrated assessment modelling,
vii
viii Acknowledgements
• The European Commission’s LIFE III Preparatory Projects, for co-funding the
participation of the CCE in the European Consortium for Modelling Air pollu-
tion and Climate Strategies (EC4MACS: LIFE06 ENV/AT/PREP/06),
• The co-funding of Alterra and CCE in the ECLAIRE project Effects of Climate
Change on Air Pollution and Response Strategies for European Ecosystems
(ECLAIRE: grant agreement no 282910) under the European Union’s 7th
Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.
The editors are very grateful to have benefited from the skills of Jan Cees Voogd
of Alterra in expertly handling a variety of tools for the editing of text, references
and graphics.
Finally, authors and co-authors of the chapters are thanked for their patience with
the editors of this book.
Contents
1 T he History and Current State of Critical Loads and Dynamic
Modelling Assessments .............................................................................. 1
Wim de Vries, Jean-Paul Hettelingh and Maximilian Posch
Part I Assessment of Indicators for Air Pollutant Impacts
2 Geochemical Indicators for Use in the Computation of Critical
Loads and Dynamic Risk Assessments ..................................................... 15
Wim de Vries, Maximilian Posch, Harald U. Sverdrup, Thorjørn Larssen,
Heleen A. de Wit, Roland Bobbink and Jean-Paul Hettelingh
3 Plant Species Diversity Indicators for Use in the Computation
of Critical Loads and Dynamic Risk Assessments .................................. 59
Han F. van Dobben, Maximilian Posch, G. W. Wieger Wamelink,
Jean-Paul Hettelingh and Wim de Vries
Part II Empirical and Model-Based Critical Loads and Target Loads
4 Effects and Empirical Critical Loads of Nitrogen for Europe ............... 85
Roland Bobbink, Hilde Tomassen, Maaike Weijters, Leon van den Berg,
Joachim Strengbom, Sabine Braun, Annika Nordin, Kirsten Schütz
and Jean-Paul Hettelingh
5 Effects and Empirical Critical Loads of Nitrogen for Ecoregions
of the United States .................................................................................... 129
Linda H. Pardo, Molly J. Robin-Abbott, Mark E. Fenn,
Christine L. Goodale, Linda H. Geiser, Charles T. Driscoll,
Edith B. Allen, Jill S. Baron, Roland Bobbink, William D. Bowman,
Christopher M. Clark, Bridget Emmett, Frank S. Gilliam,
Tara L. Greaver, Sharon J. Hall, Erik A. Lilleskov, Lingli Liu,
Jason A. Lynch, Knute J. Nadelhoffer, Steven J. Perakis,
John L. Stoddard, Kathleen C. Weathers and Robin L. Dennis
ix