Expected drop in nitrogen deposition may hamper Kyoto targets
Researcher Wieger Wamelink of Wageningen University showed in model calculations that the carbon sequestration for all forests in The Netherlands may drop to 27 % of its present value. This reduced sequestration is expected as a result of pollution control policy strategies in all countries with present high nitrogen deposition, mainly located in Europe, North America and Asia.
Mechanism
The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is fixed in wood when a tree is growing. The faster a plant is growing the more carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere. Besides carbon trees need nitrogen to grow. Normally, this nitrogen originates from soil processes. But added nitrogen via air pollution originating from agriculture, industry and transport will stimulate tree growth.
Plant diversity
Nitrogen is a nutrient for plant species. However, they all have there specific preference for the amount of nitrogen. Due to excessive nitrogen deposition many rare species are out competed and are threatened to become extinct. To save the threatened species the EU and its member states have a pollution control policy strategy to reduce the nitrogen deposition. Species will then recover, but mainly outside forests, e.g. in grassland and heathland.
Management costs
To remove the excess nitrogen from natural areas extra frequent management, such as sod cutting, mowing etc, is carried out. This extra management is costly. When the nitrogen deposition drops, savings of over € 40 million per year is possible on management costs, which is approximately one quarter of the amount of money spent on management in The Netherlands.
Media Contact
All latest news from the category: Ecology, The Environment and Conservation
This complex theme deals primarily with interactions between organisms and the environmental factors that impact them, but to a greater extent between individual inanimate environmental factors.
innovations-report offers informative reports and articles on topics such as climate protection, landscape conservation, ecological systems, wildlife and nature parks and ecosystem efficiency and balance.
Newest articles
Superradiant atoms could push the boundaries of how precisely time can be measured
Superradiant atoms can help us measure time more precisely than ever. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen present a new method for measuring the time interval,…
Ion thermoelectric conversion devices for near room temperature
The electrode sheet of the thermoelectric device consists of ionic hydrogel, which is sandwiched between the electrodes to form, and the Prussian blue on the electrode undergoes a redox reaction…
Zap Energy achieves 37-million-degree temperatures in a compact device
New publication reports record electron temperatures for a small-scale, sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion device. In the nine decades since humans first produced fusion reactions, only a few fusion technologies have demonstrated…