Good Agreement Between Modeled and Measured Sulfur and Nitrogen Deposition in Europe, in Spite of Marked Differences in Some Sites
Journal article, 2021
Atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur deposition is an important effect of atmospheric pollution and may affect forest ecosystems positively, for example enhancing tree growth, or negatively, for example causing acidification, eutrophication, cation depletion in soil or nutritional imbalances in trees. To assess and design measures to reduce the negative impacts of deposition, a good estimate of the deposition amount is needed, either by direct measurement or by modeling. In order to evaluate the precision of both approaches and to identify possible improvements, we compared the deposition estimates obtained using an Eulerian model with the measurements performed by two large independent networks covering most of Europe. The results are in good agreement (bias <25%) for sulfate and nitrate open field deposition, while larger differences are more evident for ammonium deposition, likely due to the greater influence of local ammonia sources. Modeled sulfur total deposition compares well with throughfall deposition measured in forest plots, while the estimate of nitrogen deposition is affected by the tree canopy. The geographical distribution of pollutant deposition and of outlier sites where model and measurements show larger differences are discussed.
nitrate
deposition
Europe
forest
sulfur
nitrogen
ammonium
sulfate
Author
Aldo Marchetto
Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche
David Simpson
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Microwave and Optical Remote Sensing
Wenche Aas
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)
H. Fagerli
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
Karin Hansen
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Gunilla Pihl-Karlsson
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
P. E. Karlsson
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
Michela Rogora
Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche
Tanja G.M. Sanders
Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems
Andreas Schmitz
State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia
Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems
Walter Seidling
Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems
Anne Thimonier
Eidgenossische Forschungsanstalt fur Wald, Schnee Und Landschaft Eth-Bereichs
S. Tsyro
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
W. de Vries
Wageningen University and Research
Peter Waldner
Eidgenossische Forschungsanstalt fur Wald, Schnee Und Landschaft Eth-Bereichs
Frontiers in Environmental Science
2296665X (eISSN)
Vol. 9 734556Subject Categories
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Physical Geography
DOI
10.3389/fenvs.2021.734556