Recovery of Acidified European Surface Waters

Wright, Richard F.; Larssen, Thorjørn; Camarero, Lluís; Cosby, B. J.; Ferrier, Robert C.; Helliwell, Rachel; Forsius, Martin; Jenkins, Alan; Kopáček, Jiří; Majer, Vladimı́r; Moldan, Filip; Posch, Maximilian; Rogora, Michela; Schöpp, Wolfgang

doi:10.1021/es0531778

Cited by 119 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…There is a hysteresis in the reversal of acidification. However, there is nowadays growing evidence that recovery is in progress, although there are also some uncertainties about how it will be in the next future (Wright et al 2005). There are for instance confounding factors related to climate change that can mask or counteract the recovery, such as increase of pCO 2 and organic acids in soil and runoff and increased sea salt atmospheric inputs.…”

Section: Surface Waters Acidificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Chemical Loadings in the High Mountain: Current Forcing and Legacy Pollution

Camarero

2017

High Mountain Conservation in a Changing World

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Human emissions have changed the chemistry of atmosphere. Potentially toxic chemicals have been spread, and the global cycles of some key elements have been disrupted. Because enhanced atmospheric precipitation and cold trapping caused by elevation, high mountain ecosystems are considered as regional convergence areas of atmospheric pollutants. In this chapter, research on surface waters acidification, pollution by trace elements, and atmospheric nutrient inputs in the Pyrenees is reviewed. Pyrenean lakes have experienced only a moderate acidification, due partly to an also moderate acid load and partly to the neutralising cations carried by dust. Presently, declining concentrations of sulphate in lakes indicate that recovery is proceeding. Pollution by trace elements dates more than two millennia back. The primary accumulation sites are the sediments of lakes. Soils also hold an important burden, and there is evidence that some elements are being currently remobilised. This is causing a delayed pollution, despite deposition of several trace metals is declining. The emissions of artificial reactive nitrogen have caused increased deposition on the Pyrenean catchments, which are thus nitrogen saturated. A parallel increase of phosphorus deposition has occurred, likely caused by climatic reasons. The combined effect of both seems to be an enhanced uptake of nitrogen by phytoplankton causing a lower nitrogen concentration in lakes and a possible shift from phosphorus-to-nitrogen limitation of phytoplankton growth, as well as an incipient eutrophication. All these are examples of impacts in remote natural areas that require a global strategy of conservation beyond the boundaries of the ecosystems affected.

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Section: Surface Waters Acidificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Chemical Loadings in the High Mountain: Current Forcing and Legacy Pollution

Camarero

2017

High Mountain Conservation in a Changing World

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“…Acidification, with its associated decline in salmon and trout populations, has also been a key factor in some areas, including large parts of Scandinavia (Skjelkvåle et al, 2005) and North America (Clair et al, 2011). Although Scandinavian surface waters have been recovering from acidification since the early 1990s in response to lower levels of acid deposition (Skjelkvåle et al, 2005), acid precipitation continues to exceed the critical load of many surface waters in sensitive areas such as southern Norway (Wright et al, 2005). Since forestry can contribute to acidification by leading to a net loss of base cations as a consequence of whole-tree harvesting (Akselsson et al, 2007), and maritime influence and catchment features also are important, there is not necessarily a recovery in pH associated with declines in acid precipitation (Löfgren et al 2009(Löfgren et al , 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions between pH and nutrients on benthic algae in streams and consequences for ecological status assessment and species richness patterns

Schneider

Kahlert

Kelly³

2013

Science of The Total Environment

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Eutrophication and acidification are among the major stressors on freshwater ecosystems in northern Europe and North America, but possible consequences of interactions between pH and nutrients on ecological status assessment and species richness patterns have not previously been assessed. Using data from 52 river sites throughout Norway, we investigated the combined effects of pH and nutrients on benthic algae assemblages, specifically 1) taxaspecific couplings between nutrient and acidity traits, 2) the degree of consistency between different biotic indices, separately for nutrients and acid conditions, 3) the impact of pH on nutrient indices and phosphorus on indices of acid conditions, and 4) the impact of pH and phosphorus supply on diatom and non-diatom taxon richness. We found that 1) acid-tolerant taxa are generally associated with nutrient-poor conditions, with only a few exceptions; this is probably more a consequence of habitat availability than reflecting true ecological niches; 2) correlation coefficients between nutrient indices and TP, as well as acid conditions indices and pH were barely affected when the confounding factor was removed; 3) the association of acid-tolerant taxa with nutrient-poor conditions means that the lowest possible nutrient index at a site, as indicated by benthic algae, is lower at acid than at circumneutral sites. Although 2 this may be an artefact of the datasets from which taxa-specific indicator values were derived, it could lead to a drift in nutrient indices with recovery from acidification; 4) the response of non-diatom taxon richness follows a complex pattern with a synergistic interaction between nutrient supply and pH. In contrast, diatom richness follows a simple additive pattern; this suggests structural differences between diatoms and non-diatom benthic algae in their response to nutrient supply and pH; diatom taxon richness tended to increase with nutrient supply, while non-diatom richness decreased.

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“…Increasing concentrations of sulfate, nitrate, and hydrogen ions in soil solutions due to long-range transport of acidic pollutants caused reduction in acid neutralizing capacity, soil depletion of base cations, and mobilization of toxic ionic aluminum species, with adverse effects on nutrient cycling and the health of forest and aquatic ecosystems, and deleterious reduction of freshwater biodiversity (Reuss and Johnson 1986;Psenner and Catalan 1994;Driscoll et al 2001;Vrba et al 2003a). While deposition of acidifying pollutants has substantially declined in Europe and North America, particularly due to sulfur emission controls since 1980s, leading to partial recovery of surface waters from acid stress (Stoddard et al 1999), biological recovery of these areas remains remarkably delayed or uncertain (Jeffries et al 2003;Skjelkvåle et al 2003;Yan et al 2003;Wright et al 2005;Nedbalová et al 2006). Two recent reviews on plankton recovery (Graham et al 2007;Gray and Arnott 2009) discussed this lag and its possible reasons and pointed out certain gaps in our knowledge due to a lack of data and/or methodological constraints.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Die-Back Modified Plankton Recovery from Acidic Stress

Vrba

Kopáček

Fott

et al. 2013

AMBIO

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We examined long-term data on water chemistry of Lake Rachelsee (Germany) following the changes in acidic depositions in central Europe since 1980s. Despite gradual chemical recovery of Rachelsee, its biological recovery was delayed. In 1999, lake recovery was abruptly reversed by a coincident forest die-back, which resulted in elevated terrestrial export of nitrate and ionic aluminum lasting *5 years. This re-acidification episode provided unique opportunity to study plankton recovery in the rapidly recovering lake water after the abrupt decline in nitrate leaching from the catchment. There were sudden changes both in lake water chemistry and in plankton biomass structure, such as decreased bacterial filaments, increased phytoplankton biomass, and rotifer abundance. The shift from dominance of heterotrophic to autotrophic organisms suggested their substantial release from severe phosphorus stress. Such a rapid change in plankton structure in a lake recovering from acidity has, to the best of our knowledge, not been previously documented.

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Recovery of Acidified European Surface Waters

Cited by 119 publications

References 37 publications

Atmospheric Chemical Loadings in the High Mountain: Current Forcing and Legacy Pollution

Atmospheric Chemical Loadings in the High Mountain: Current Forcing and Legacy Pollution

Interactions between pH and nutrients on benthic algae in streams and consequences for ecological status assessment and species richness patterns

Forest Die-Back Modified Plankton Recovery from Acidic Stress

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