On the Assessment of Atmospheric Deposition of Sulfur and Nitrogen Species to the Surface of Large Inland Lakes—Lake Champlain

Abstract

Early work indicated that wet deposition of radioactive fallout to the water surface of a lake greatly exceeded dry, when calculated as annual averages. To test whether this result also applies to the deposition rates of soluble trace gases from the lower atmosphere, data collected at land sites near Lake Champlain have been used to estimate deposition rates to the lake itself, using an analysis of the wind speed-up factor as an intermediate step. The contribution of dry deposition of the major nitrogen and sulfur chemical species is estimated to have been less than 20% of the total atmospheric deposition. However, this result must not be extrapolated to the watershed in which Lake Champlain resides, since evidence obtained elsewhere indicates that the dry deposition contribution over the entire watershed will likely be similar to the wet. The analysis indicates that for the period from 1992 to 1997 the annual total deposition rates of oxidized nitrogen and sulfur ranged from 300 to 500 tonnes per year and 600 to 1,100 tonnes per year, respectively.