Effects of Accumulation of Air Pollutants in Forest Ecosystems

This volume is based on a workshop on "Effects of accumulation of air pollutants in forest ecosystems'; held in GOttingen, Federal Republic of Germany, from May 16-18, 1982. This work'shop was initiated and sponsored by the Environmental Agency of the Federal Republic of Germany (project officer: Dr. J. Pankrath) as part of a research contract (project leader: Dr. B. Ulrich). THE PROBLEM SEEN UNDER THE ASPECT OF ADMINISTRATION The problem of forest damage caused by air pollution is not new in Europe. Already in 1983 a comprehensive report from Schroeder and Reuss about vegetation damages by fume in the Harz mountains was published. In 1923, Prof. Dr. Julius Stocklasa of the Bohemian Technical Highschool in Prague was concerned with research of toxical effects of sulphur dioxide in his publication "The damage of vegetation by flue gas and exhalations of facili­ ties". This comprehensive and instructive work concludes with the sentence: "It is already high time for the governments of all cultural states to take legal, police and private measures in order to prevent damage by flue gases". In the neighbourhood of industries with high gaseous and dust emissions damages have been shown to occur for a long timei these deleterious effects have influenced the growth of trees and in extreme cases have even caused their early death.

Inhalt

Preface.- A concept of forest ecosystem stability and of acid deposition as driving force for destabilization.- Topic 1: Processes and Rates of Deposition, Storage Places of Deposited Air Pollutants.- Interaction of forest canopies with atmospheric constituents: SO2, alkali and earth alkali cations and chloride.- Interaction of forest canopies with atmospheric constituents: Aluminum and heavy metals.- Input of acidifiers and heavy metals to a German forest area due to dry and wet deposition.- Processes and rates of deposition of air pollutants in different ecosystems.- Measurements of surface resistance during dry deposition of SO2 to wet and dry coniferous forest.- Topic 2: Processes and Rates of Proton Production by Discoupling of the Ion Cycle, and of Proton Consumption by Silicate Weathering.- The turnover of protons by mineralization and ion uptake in a beech (Fagus Silvatica) and a Norway spruce ecosystem.- Effects on soil chemistry as a consequence of proton input.- Holocene versus accelerated actual proton consumption in German forest soils.- Topic 3: Effects on Chemical Soil State.- Soil acidity and its relations to acid deposition.- Balances of element fluxes within different ecosystems impacted by acid rain.- A mechanism for storage and retrieval of acid in acid soils.- Effects of atmospheric ammonium sulfate on calcareous and non-calcareous soils of woodlands in the Netherlands.- Studies of proton flux in forests and heaths in Scotland.- Composition of percolate from reconstructed profiles of two Jack Pine Forest soils as influenced by acid input.- Sulphur pollution: Ca, Mg and Al in soil and soil water and possible effects on forest trees.- Soil properties under three species of tree in southern England in relation to acid deposition in throughfall.- Influence of soil reaction and organic matter on the solubility of heavy metals in soils.- Topic 4: Effects on Biological Soil State and on Animals.- Micro-morphological characteristics of humus forms as indicators of increased environmental stress in Hamburg's forests.- Biochemical reactivity in forest soils as indicators for environmental pollution.- Mercury - Accumulation in game.- Topic 5: Effects of Soil Acidification and Accumulation of Air Pollutants on Plants.- Air pollutant deposition and effects on plants.- IUFRO-Studies on maximal SO2 emissions standards to protect forests.- Longtermed fluoride pollution of a forest ecosystem: Time, the dimension of pitfalls and limitations.- The problem of determining growth losses in Norway Spruce stands caused by environmental factors.- First information about inventory of emission depending damages on Norway Spruce in Lower Saxony/Fed. Rep. Germany.- Die-back of Red Spruce, acid deposition, and changes in soil nutrient status - a review.- Scots Pine-dying within the neighbourhood of an industrial area.- Growth patterns, phloem nutrient contents and root characteristics of beech (Fagus sylv.L.) on soils of different reaction.- Biological alterations in the stem and root of fir and spruce due to pollution influence.