Relevance of canopy drip for the accumulation of nitrogen in moss used as biomonitors for atmospheric nitrogen deposition in Europe

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.069
• Publication Date: 2015-08-29T02:32:50Z
• Authors: Michaela Meyer; Winfried Schröder; Stefan Nickel; Sébastien Leblond; Antti-Jussi Lindroos; Karsten Mohr; Jarmo Poikolainen; Jesus Miguel Sant...; Mitja Skudnik; Lotti Thöni; Burkhard Beudert; Helga Dieffenbach...; Hubert Schulte-Bi...; Harald G. Zechmei...
• Keywords: 570; LAND; throughfall deposition; 105904 Environmental research; Nitrogen; 303018 Air hygiene; 107006 Nature conservation; Bryophyta; Forests; 01 natural sciences; nitrogen; Trees; DRY DEPOSITION; FOREST ECOSYSTEMS; HEAVY-METALS; 107006 Naturschutz; Muut aihealueet; THROUGHFALL DEPOSITION; Ecosystem; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences; Air Pollutants; VALUES; Atmosphere; Throughfall deposition; 15. Life on land; ta4112; Bioaccumulation; canopy drip; CLIMATE; Europe; Canopy drip; bioaccumulation; 13. Climate action; 303018 Lufthygiene; WET; 105904 Umweltforschung; Environmental Monitoring

High atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) impacts functions and structures of N limited ecosystems. Due to filtering and related canopy drip effects forests are particularly exposed to N deposition. Up to now, this was proved by many studies using technical deposition samplers but there are only some few studies analysing the canopy drip effect on the accumulation of N in moss and related small scale atmospheric deposition patterns. Therefore, we investigated N deposition and related accumulation of N in forests and in (neighbouring) open fields by use of moss sampled across seven European countries. Sampling and chemical analyses were conducted according to the experimental protocol of the European Moss Survey. The ratios between the measured N content in moss sampled inside and outside of forests were computed and used to calculate estimates for non-sampled sites. Potentially influencing environmental factors were integrated in order to detect their relationships to the N content in moss. The overall average N content measured in moss was 20.0mgg(-1) inside and 11.9mgg(-1) outside of forests with highest N values in Germany inside of forests. Explaining more than 70% of the variance, the multivariate analyses confirmed that the sampling site category (site with/without canopy drip) showed the strongest correlation with the N content in moss. Spatial variances due to enhanced dry deposition in vegetation stands should be considered in future monitoring and modelling of atmospheric N deposition.