Long-term changes in acidification and recovery at nine calibrated catchments in Norway, Sweden and Finland

International agreements to reduce the emissions of acidifying pollutants have resulted in major changes in deposition of sulphur and nitrogen in southern Scandinavia over the past 25 years. Long-term monitoring of deposition and run-off chemistry over the past 12-25 years at nine small calibrated catchments in Finland, Norway and Sweden provide the basis for analysis of trends with special attention to recovery in response to decreased sulphur and nitrogen deposition in the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s sulphate deposition in the region decreased by 30 to 60%, whereas inorganic nitrogen deposition showed very little change until the mid-1990s. Deposition of non-marine base cations (especially calcium) declined in the 1990s most markedly in southern Finland. Run-off response to these changes in deposition has been rapid and clear at the nine catchments. Sulphate and base cations (mostly calcium) concentrations declined and acid neutralising capacity increased. Occasional years with unusually high inputs of sea-salt confound the general trends. Trends at all the catchments show the same general picture as that from small lakes in Scandinavia and in acid-sensitive waters elsewhere in Europe.</p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords: </b>acidification, recovery, Scandinavia, catchment, trend analysi

Long-term changes in acidification and recovery at nine calibrated catchments in Norway, Sweden and Finland

International audienceInternational agreements to reduce the emissions of acidifying pollutants have resulted in major changes in deposition of sulphur and nitrogen in southern Scandinavia over the past 25 years. Long-term monitoring of deposition and run-off chemistry over the past 12-25 years at nine small calibrated catchments in Finland, Norway and Sweden provide the basis for analysis of trends with special attention to recovery in response to decreased sulphur and nitrogen deposition in the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s sulphate deposition in the region decreased by 30 to 60%, whereas inorganic nitrogen deposition showed very little change until the mid-1990s. Deposition of non-marine base cations (especially calcium) declined in the 1990s most markedly in southern Finland. Run-off response to these changes in deposition has been rapid and clear at the nine catchments. Sulphate and base cations (mostly calcium) concentrations declined and acid neutralising capacity increased. Occasional years with unusually high inputs of sea-salt confound the general trends. Trends at all the catchments show the same general picture as that from small lakes in Scandinavia and in acid-sensitive waters elsewhere in Europe. Keywords: acidification, recovery, Scandinavia, catchment, trend analysi

The Value of Literacy Practices

The concepts of literacy events and practices have received considerable attention in educational research and policy. In comparison, the question of value, that is, ‘which literacy practices do people most value?’ has been neglected. With the current trend of cross-cultural adult literacy assessment, it is increasingly important to recognise locally valued literacy practices. In this paper we argue that measuring preferences and weighting of literacy practices provides an empirical and democratic basis for decisions in literacy assessment and curriculum development and could inform rapid educational adaptation to changes in the literacy environment. The paper examines the methodological basis for investigating literacy values and its potential to inform cross-cultural literacy assessments. The argument is illustrated with primary data from Mozambique. The correlation between individual values and respondents’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics is explored

Dynamic modeling and target loads of sulfur and nitrogen for surface waters in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

The target load concept is an extension of the critical load concept of air pollution inputs to ecosystems. The advantage of target loads over critical loads is that one can define the deposition and the point in time (target year) when the critical (chemical) limit is no longer violated. This information on the timing of recovery requires dynamic modelling. Using a well-documented dynamic model, target loads for acidic deposition were determined for 848 surface waters across Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom for the target year 2050. In the majority of sites (n = 675), the critical ANC-limit was predicted to be achieved by 2050; however, for 127 sites target loads were determined. In addition, 46 sites were infeasible, i.e., even a deposition reduction to zero would not achieve the limit by 2050. The average maximum target load for sulphur was 38% lower than the respective critical load across the study lakes (n = 127). Target loads on a large regional scale can inform effects-based emission reduction policies; the current assessment suggests that reductions beyond the Gothenburg Protocol are required to ensure surface water recovery from acidification by 2050

A modelling assessment of acidification and recovery of European surface waters

The increase in emission of sulphur oxides and nitrogen (both oxidised and reduced forms) since the mid-1800s caused a severe decline in pH and ANC in acid-sensitive surface waters across Europe. Since c.1980, these emissions have declined and trends towards recovery from acidification have been widely observed in time-series of water chemistry data. In this paper, the MAGIC model was applied to 10 regions (the SMART model to one) in Europe to address the question of future recovery under the most recently agreed emission protocols (the 1999 Gothenburg Protocol). The models were calibrated using best available data and driven using S and N deposition sequences for Europe derived from EMEP data. The wide extent and the severity of water acidification in 1980 in many regions were illustrated by model simulations which showed significant deterioration in ANC away from the pre-acidification conditions. The simulations also captured the recovery to 2000 in response to the existing emission reductions. Predictions to 2016 indicated further significant recovery towards pre-acidification chemistry in all regions except Central England (S Pennines), S Alps, S Norway and S Sweden. In these areas it is clear that further emission reductions will be required and that the recovery of surface waters will take several decades as soils slowly replenish their depleted base cation pools. Chemical recovery may not, however, ensure biological recovery and further reductions may also be required to enable these waters to achieve the "good ecological status" as required by the EU Water Framework Directive

Eliciting, applying and exploring multidimensional welfare weights: evidence from the field

By combining primary data on dimension importance collected in the field from three different samples and nationally representative survey data from the Dominican Republic, we offer a twofold contribution. The first one comes from an unincentivized questionnaire experiment, where the significance of the treatment effect shows that life domains are valued differently in a poverty vs a well‐being framework. This poses important questions on the anatomy of dimension importance and on the use of weights in empirical analyses, and opens the door to what we call a “concordance paradox” related to the very essence of the constructs of poverty and well‐being. As a second contribution, we employ the sets of weights collected in the field to assess the trend of multidimensional poverty and well‐being in the country. We find that the picking one set of weights or another is not a trivial choice, as they lead to opposite assessment results