Atmospheric Deposition and Element Accumulation in Moss Sampled across Germany 1990–2015: Trends and Relevance for Ecological Integrity and Human Health

Angela Schlutow,Stefan Nickel,Winfried Schröder

doi:10.3390/atmos12020193

Abstract

Deposition of N and heavy metals can impact ecological and human health. This state-of-the-art review addresses spatial and temporal trends of atmospheric deposition as monitored by element accumulation in moss and compares heavy metals Critical Loads for protecting human health and ecosystem’s integrity with modelled deposition. The element accumulation due to deposition was measured at up to 1026 sites collected across Germany 1990–2015. The deposition data were derived from chemical transport modelling and evaluated with regard to Critical Loads published in relevant legal regulations. The moss data indicate declining nitrogen and HM deposition. Ecosystem and human health Critical Loads for As, Ni, Zn, and Cr were not exceeded in Germany 2009–2011. Respective Critical Loads were exceeded by Hg and Pb inputs, especially in the low rainfall regions with forest coverage. The Critical Load for Cu was exceeded by atmospheric deposition in 2010 in two regions. Human health Critical Loads for Cd were not exceeded by atmospheric deposition in 2010. However, the maximum deposition in 2010 exceeded the lowest human health Critical Load. This impact assessment was based only on deposition but not on inputs from other sources such as fertilizers. Therefore, the assessment should be expanded with regard to other HM sources and specified for different ecosystem types.

Highlights

Published: 31 January 2021Emissions of elements from natural and anthropogenic sources come down to earth as wet, occult [1,2], or dry deposition at locations distant from their origin where they accumulate in biomass and soils [3]
Thereby, the geostatistically estimated median multi-metal index (MMI) are added in squared brackets by those calculated from the sample point measurements
When comparing the deposition calculated by Schaap et al [18] as an area-wide dataset for Germany with the assessment values, the differences between the calculation results of the deposition and between assessment values are of great importance

Summary

Introduction

Published: 31 January 2021Emissions of elements from natural and anthropogenic sources come down to earth as wet, occult [1,2], or dry deposition at locations distant from their origin where they accumulate in biomass and soils [3]. The European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) is to collate emission data, to collect atmospheric deposition Europe-wide by technical devices, and to calculate and map atmospheric deposition by chemical transport models such as the Long Term Ozone Simulation—EURopean Operational Smog model (LOTOS-EUROS) and EMEP [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]) This monitoring and modelling data can be validated and complemented by monitoring the bioaccumulation of elements in moss [22,23,24]. Basics for the Determination of Critical Loads for Heavy Metal Deposition

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