The effects of scale and resolution in developing percentile maps of critical loads for the UK.

Critical loads are estimated in the UK by the Department of Environment's Critical Loads Advisory Group and sub-groups. The Mapping and Data Centre at ITE Monks Wood acts as the National Focal Centre for the UNECE programme for mapping critical loads. The centre is responsible for the generation of UK data sets and their application for national and European purposes. To make effective use of these data, it is necessary to draw upon other environmental data and examine the issues of scale, uncertainty and the way that data are presented. This paper outlines the methodologies which have been employed to derive national maps. Early critical load maps were not vegetation specific, but now critical loads for acidity and for nutrient nitrogen for soils, critical levels maps for ozone and sulphur dioxide, and sulphur deposition maps, have been generated on a vegetation or ecosystem specific basis. These have been used to derive a number of different types of critical load and exceedance maps. The results show the importance of the method selected and the data used for the interpretation. The visualisation of critical loads and the corresponding exceedance data is an important aspect in producing information for pollution abatement strategies

The seasonal variation in soil water acid neutralizing capacity in peaty podzols in mid-Wales

Between 1985 and 1990, bulk precipitation and soil solution from the organic (Oh) and mineral (Bs) horizons of a well developed podzol were regularly sampled at a moorland catchment in Mid-Wales. Samples were analysed for pH, major cations, major anions, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) was estimated by the charge balance method. Average monthly ANC of soil solutions from the Oh horizon varied seasonally, with a maximum in July and a minimum in February. In contrast, H+ concentrations varied little. Solute deposition, dominated by sodium and chloride, also varied seasonally with a winter maximum, which is reflected in the soil solution chemical composition. In the Oh horizon during winter, the increase in base cation (Na) concentrations led to release of H+ through ion exchange. ANC declined in the absence of any buffering mechanism. In summer, the depletion of exchangeable acidity that occurred in winter, was replenished by H+ produced by the dissociation of organic acids. During this period, organic anions contribute to an increase in ANC, while H+ concentrations remained similar to those in winter. These processes probably influenced the acidity and ANC of Bs horizon soil solutions but to a lesser extent than in the Oh horizon. Other mechanisms such as weathering and ion exchange involving H+ and Al may buffer solution acidity in the mineral soil

Measuring Aerosol and Heavy Metal Deposition on Urban Woodland and Grass Using Inventories of 210Pb and Metal Concentrations in Soil

The deposition of aerosols to trees has proved very difficult to quantify, especially in complex landscapes. However, trees are widely quoted to be efficient scavengers of particles from the atmosphere, and a growing proportion of the pollutant burden in the atmosphere is present in the aerosol phase. In this study, the deposition of aerosols onto woodland and grass was quantified at a range of locations throughout the West Midlands of England. The sites included mature deciduous woodland in Edgbaston, and Moseley, and mixed woodland at sites within Sutton Park, a large area of semi-natural vegetation. Aerosol deposition to areas of grassland close to the woodland at each site was also measured. Detailed inventories of 210Pb in soils within the woodland and in grassland soils, together with concentrations in the atmosphere and precipitation, provided the necessary data to calculate the long-term (about 40 years) annual deposition of sub-micron aerosols onto grassland and woodland. The soil inventories of 210Pb under woodland exceeded those under grass, by between 22% and 60%, with dry deposition contributing 24% of the total input flux for grass and 47% for woodland. The aerosol dry deposition velocity to grassland averaged 3.3 mm s-1 and 9 mm s-1 for woodland. The large deposition rates of aerosols onto woodland relative to grass or other short vegetation (× 3), and accumulation of heavy metals within the surface horizons of organic soils, leads to large concentrations in soils of urban woodland. Concentrations in the top 10 cm of these woodland soils averaged 252 mg kg-1 for Pb with peaks to 400 mg kg-1. Concentrations of Cd averaged 1.4 mg kg-1, Cu, 126 mg kg-1, Ni 23 mg kg-1 and Zn 173 mg kg-1. The accumulated Pb in urban woodland soils is shown to be large relative to UK emission

The use of a GIS-based inventory to provide a regional risk assessment of standing waters in Great Britain sensitive to acidification from atmospheric deposition

Previous attempts to identify regions of Britain vulnerable to acidification have used sensitivity maps based on the distribution of soils, geology, and land cover across Great Britain. Additionally, a systematic survey of freshwaters undertaken as part of the U.K. critical loads mapping programme provides a regional assessment of both sensitivity (critical loads) and, in tandem with deposition data, potential impact (critical load exceedance). Both approaches, while useful for identifying regional patterns, do not enable estimates of the number of affected water bodies to be made. Recent EU legislation (e.g., The Water Framework Directive) requires member states to set water quality objectives for all water bodies. We developed a GIS-based inventory of standing water bodies in response to the need for legislation-driven assessments of the status of the U.K. lake population. This paper describes how the inventory can be used to assess the number of standing water bodies in Britain that are vulnerable to acid deposition (at current levels), building on the sensitivity mapping undertaken previously. Using this approach, approximately 31% of all standing waters in Great Britain (excluding the Shetlands and Orkney) larger than 0.02 ha are identified as 'at risk' from acidification. Higher proportions are vulnerable in Scotland and Wales. Additionally, large numbers of standing waters in areas designated for environmental protection purposes are also vulnerable.</p

Enhancements to a Geographically Weighted Principal Component Analysis in the Context of an Application to an Environmental Data Set

In many physical geography settings, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied without consideration for important spatial effects, and in doing so, tends to provide an incomplete understanding of a given process. In such circumstances, a spatial adaptation of PCA can be adopted, and to this end, this study focuses on the use of geographically weighted principal component analysis (GWPCA). GWPCA is a localized version of PCA that is an appropriate exploratory tool when a need exists to investigate for a certain spatial heterogeneity in the structure of a multivariate data set. This study provides enhancements to GWPCA with respect to: (i) finding the scale at which each localized PCA should operate; and (ii) visualizing the copious amounts of output that result from its application. An extension of GWPCA is also proposed, where it is used to detect multivariate spatial outliers. These advancements in GWPCA are demonstrated using an environmental freshwater chemistry data set, where a commentary on the use of preprocessed (transformed and standardized) data is also presented. The study is structured as follows: (1) the GWPCA methodology; (2) a description of the case study data; (3) the GWPCA application, demonstrating the value of the proposed advancements; and (4) conclusions. Most GWPCA functions have been incorporated within the GWmodel R package

Increasing iron concentrations in UK upland waters

Iron distributions in rainfall, streams, soils and groundwaters are described for the Upper River Severn catchment of mid-Wales. Iron is mainly supplied from within-catchment sources with highest concentrations occurring under reducing conditions. Iron concentrations have doubled over the past 20 years (~5.0 μg yr−1 for the forest and ~3.7 μg yr−1 for the moorland). For the forested sites, the gradients are particularly high post-1993. UK rivers/lakes monitored by the UK Acid Waters Monitoring Network show similar increases. Generally, Fe correlates with dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The greatest rates of Fe increase coincide with those for DOC. Thermodynamic modelling using WHAM/Model VI indicates that Fe(III) is mainly in microparticulate form (probably oxyhydroxides) apart from under reducing conditions. It is proposed that Fe increases for surface waters are associated with increased microparticulate Fe(III) due to stabilisation against aggregation by binding of DOM to its surface. The results relate to acidification declines and deforestation leading to land disturbance and wetter conditions within the soil. There will be greater acidification reversal following tree harvesting due to lowering of atmospheric SOx scavenging and this may have resulted in the greater increase in Fe in the later years of the study