Critical loads mapping in Poland: Lessons learned

Abstract

Since 1990 the Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, acting as National Focal Center, is actively involved in an international research programme aimed at the calculation and mapping of critical loads of acidifying compounds. Following the methodological guidelines elaborated under the leadership of UN/ECE Task Force on Mapping and Coordination Center for Effects, national maps of critical loads and their exceedances for acidity, sulphur and nitrogen have been produced. These maps have already been utilized in derivation of European maps of critical loads of acidity and sulphur submitted to the UN/ECE LRTAP Convention as scientific input to the negotiations on the Second Sulphur Protocol. The lessons learned from the critical loads mapping exercise can be summarized as follow: the majority of Polish territory is covered with forest soils sensitive to acidification at an average Central European level; the exceedances of critical loads, estimated on the basis of national deposition data reveal the tune changes of ecological risks on the territory of Poland as a reflection of economic transition. The significant difference in the scale of those risks (measured by the percentage of the country territory with the maximum exceedances of critical loads) that appear in the period between 1987, representing the period of central planned economy and 1990, representing the early transition phase to a market economy, is particularly notable.