CRITICAL LOADS OF ACID DEPOSITION ON FOREST SOILS IN EUROPEAN RUSSIA ON DIFFERENT REGIONAL SCALES

G. Koptsik ⁽¹⁾, S. Koptsik ⁽²⁾, B. Moiseev ⁽³⁾, M. Makarov ⁽¹⁾, L. Morgun ⁽³⁾

Annotation:

We assessed critical loads of acid deposition and their exceedance for forest soils in the European part of the former Soviet Union using a simple balance method and mapped them within 1.0° в 0.5° longitude per latitude grid cells. Present level of acid deposition in the main part of Russia doesn't lead to soil acidification including even most sensitive sandy podzols. But heavy acid loads in the Kola Peninsula, in the West region of Russia, in some parts of Byelorussia, Ukraine and Baltic countries exceed the area's critical loads and increase the risk of damage to forest ecosystems. The uncertainty in the estimated critical load values can be rather large due to uncertainty in critical chemical values for the soil as for a receptor, assessment method and data. Both limited number of experimental data and their spatial variability determines uncertainties in data. Obtained results are certainly preliminary and represent the current state of critical load assessment problem in Russia. These maps can be revised as new experimental input data become available and as assessment method will be improved.

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