Selecting Biomonitors of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition: Guidelines for Practitioners and Decision Makers

Environmental pollution is a major threat to public health and is the cause of important economic losses worldwide. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is one of the most significant components of environmental pollution, which, in addition to being a health risk, is one of the leading drivers of global biodiversity loss. However, monitoring pollution is not possible in many regions of the world because the instrumentation, deployment, operation, and maintenance of automated systems is onerous. An affordable alternative is the use of biomonitors, naturally occurring or transplanted organisms that respond to environmental pollution with a consistent and measurable ecophysiological response. This policy brief advocates for the use of biomonitors of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Descriptions of the biological and monitoring particularities of commonly utilized biomonitor lichens, bryophytes, vascular epiphytes, herbs, and woody plants, are followed by a discussion of the principal ecophysiological parameters that have been shown to respond to the different nitrogen emissions and their rate of deposition.

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Winter atmospheric nutrient and pollutant deposition on Western Sayan Mountain lakes (Siberia)

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-18-1601-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (5) ◽

pp. 1601-1618

Author(s):

Daniel Diaz-de-Quijano ◽

Aleksander Vladimirovich Ageev ◽

Elena Anatolevna Ivanova ◽

Olesia Valerevna Anishchenko

Keyword(s):

Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Forest Fires ◽

Nitrogen Limitation ◽

Mountain Lakes ◽

Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Atmospheric Nitrogen ◽

Natural Ecosystems ◽

Nitrogen Emissions ◽

Carbonaceous Particle ◽

Nutrient Deposition

Abstract. The world map of anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen deposition and its effects on natural ecosystems is not described with equal precision everywhere. In this paper, we report atmospheric nutrient, sulfate and spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP) deposition rates, based on snowpack analyses of a formerly unexplored Siberian mountain region. Then, we discuss their potential effects on lake phytoplankton biomass limitation. We estimate that the nutrient depositions observed in the late-season snowpack (40 ± 16 mg NO3-N m−2 and 0.58 ± 0.13 mg TP-P m−2; TP for total phosphorous) would correspond to yearly depositions lower than 119 ± 71 mg NO3-N m−2 yr−1 and higher than 1.71 ± 0.91 mg TP-P m−2 yr−1. These yearly deposition estimates would approximately fit the predictions of global deposition models and correspond to the very low nutrient deposition range, although they are still higher than world background values. In spite of the fact that such a low atmospheric nitrogen deposition rate would be enough to induce nitrogen limitation in unproductive mountain lakes, phosphorus deposition was also extremely low, and the resulting lake water N : P ratio was unaffected by atmospheric nutrient deposition. In the end, the studied lakes' phytoplankton appeared to be split between phosphorus and nitrogen limitation. We conclude that these pristine lakes are fragile sensitive systems exposed to the predicted climate warming, increased winter precipitation, enhanced forest fires and shifts in anthropogenic nitrogen emissions that could finally couple their water chemistry to that of atmospheric nutrient deposition and unlock temperature-inhibited responses of phytoplankton to nutrient shifts.

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Winter atmospheric nutrients and pollutants deposition on West Sayan mountain lakes (Siberia)

10.5194/bg-2020-125 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Diaz-de-Quijano ◽

Aleksander Vladimirovich Ageev ◽

Elena Anatolevna Ivanova ◽

Olesia Valerevna Anishchenko

Keyword(s):

Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Forest Fires ◽

Nitrogen Limitation ◽

Mountain Lakes ◽

Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition ◽

Atmospheric Nitrogen ◽

Spheroidal Carbonaceous Particles ◽

Nitrogen Emissions ◽

Carbonaceous Particles ◽

Nutrient Deposition

Abstract. The world map of anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen deposition and its effects on natural ecosystems is not described with equal precision everywhere. In this paper, we report atmospheric nutrient, sulphate and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) deposition rates, based on snowpack analyses, of a formerly unexplored Siberian mountain region. Then, we discuss their potential effects on lake phytoplankton biomass limitation. We estimate that the nutrient depositions observed in the late season snowpack (40 ± 16 mg NO3-N × m−2 and 0.58 ± 0.13 mg TP-P · m−2) would correspond to yearly depositions lower than 119 ± 71 mg NO3-N · m−2 · y−1 and higher than 1.71 ± 0.91 mg TP-P · m−2 · y−1. These yearly deposition estimates would approximately fit the predictions of global deposition models and correspond to the very low nutrient deposition range although they are still higher than world background values. In spite of the fact that such low atmospheric nitrogen deposition rate would be enough to induce nitrogen limitation in unproductive mountain lakes, the extremely low phosphorus deposition would have made the bioavailable N : P deposition ratio to be frankly high. In the end, lake phytoplankton appeared to be hanging on the fence between phosphorus and nitrogen limitation, with a trend towards nitrogen limitation. We conclude that slight imbalances in the nutrient deposition might have important effects on the ecology of these lakes under the expected scenario of climate warming, increased winter precipitation, enhanced forest fires and shifts in anthropogenic nitrogen emissions.

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