Spatial and temporal patterns of nitrogen deposition in China: Synthesis of observational data

Abstract

Anthropogenic nitrous pollutant emissions in China significantly increased during the last decades, which contributed to the accelerated nitrogen (N) deposition. In order to characterize spatial pattern of nitrogen deposition, we employed the kriging technique to interpolate sampling data of precipitation chemistry and ambient air concentration from site‐network observations over China. The estimation of wet deposition in China was limited to aqueous NO3− and NH4+, while ambient NO2 was the only species involved in the predicted dry deposition fluxes. To obtain wet deposition fluxes, precipitation concentration was multiplied by 20‐year mean precipitation amounts with a resolution of 10 × 10 km. Dry deposition fluxes were products of the interpolated ambient NO2 concentration and deposition velocities modeled for the main vegetation types in China. The total deposition rates of wet and dry deposition peaked over the central south China, with maximum values of 63.53 kg N ha−1 yr−1, and an average value of 12.89 kg N ha−1 yr−1. With ambient NO2 concentration data spanning from the year 1990 through 2003, we detected and evaluated trends in the time series of the annual values of atmospheric NO2 concentration. Significant upward trends at 21 of 102 sites were exhibited, with median percent change of 61.45% over the period 1990–2003. In addition, spatially continuous patterns of dry deposition fluxes based on ambient NO2 measurements in two 5‐year phases, 9 years apart, were carried out. On average, there was a rise of 7.66% in NO2 dry deposition during 9 years throughout China.