Abstract
BackgroundThe collection of atmospheric deposition by technical samplers and validated deposition modelling using chemical transport models is spatially complemented by using mosses as bioindicator: since 1990, the European moss survey has been providing data on element concentrations in moss every 5 years at up to 7300 sampling sites. In the moss specimens, heavy metals (since 1990), nitrogen (since 2005) and persistent organic pollutants (since 2010) were determined. Germany participated in all surveys with the exception of that in 2010. In this study, the spatial structures of element concentrations in moss collected in Germany between 1990 and 2015 were comparatively investigated by using Moran’s I statistics and Variogram analysis and mapped by use of Kriging interpolation. This is the precondition to spatially join the moss survey data with data collected at other locations within different environmental networks and to validate spatial patterns of atmospheric deposition as derived by technical sampling and modelling.ResultsThe calculated maps reveal a clear and statistically significant decrease of most heavy metals, but not of nitrogen, in moss. Due to decreasing element concentrations and the unchanged application of the element concentration classification for the mapping, the heavy metal maps for the survey 2015 do no longer depict much spatial variation.ConclusionsTherefore, in an upcoming study, this analysis needs to be complemented for the heavy metals by calculating maps that depict the spatial structure of survey-specific percentile statistics 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2015.
Highlights
The collection of atmospheric deposition by technical samplers and validated deposition modelling using chemical transport models is spatially complemented by using mosses as bioindicator: since 1990, the European moss survey has been providing data on element concentrations in moss every 5 years at up to 7300 sampling sites
This study aims at synoptically compare the spatial structures of element concentrations accumulated in moss in terms of surface maps as derived from sample point data by analysis and modelling of the spatial autocorrelation by means of Variogram analysis and, based on the resulting function, mapping by Kriging interpolation [24, 25]
Examples include: The monitoring network should comprise 1.5 sampling sites within 1000 km2 or at least two sites per EMEPdeposition modelling grid (50 km × 50 km), regions with steep deposition gradients should be sampled at a higher sample point density, moss sampling points should be located close to sites where atmospheric deposition is collected by technical devices, for enabling time trend analyses, the sampling points should remain the same across time, the sampling should be restricted to the three moss species mentioned in “Background” section
Summary
The collection of atmospheric deposition by technical samplers and validated deposition modelling using chemical transport models is spatially complemented by using mosses as bioindicator: since 1990, the European moss survey has been providing data on element concentrations in moss every 5 years at up to 7300 sampling sites. The spatial structures of element concentrations in moss collected in Germany between 1990 and 2015 were comparatively investigated by using Moran’s I statistics and Variogram analysis and mapped by use of Kriging interpolation. This is the precondition to spatially join the moss survey data with data collected at other locations within different environmental networks and to validate spatial patterns of atmospheric deposition as derived by technical sampling and modelling. Atmospheric deposition of heavy metals, nitrogen and persistent organic pollutants may impact the integrity of ecosystems so that standards aiming at their protection are failed.
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