Achievements of ICP Vegetation* in 2012/13 & plans for the future

Transcription

1 Achievements of ICP Vegetation* in 2012/13 & plans for the future Harry Harmens, Gina Mills, Felicity Hayes, David Norris, and the participants of the ICP Vegetation * Supported by Defra (UK), NERC (UK) & UNECE

2 Outline presentation Report on ozone impacts on ecosystem services and biodiversity (to be published in April 2013; will feed into the WGE report) Report on the European heavy metals and nitrogen in mosses survey 2010/11 (published in March 2013) EECCA/SEE countries & outreach beyond UNECE region Addressing (further) questions of ICP Review Group, including ICP Vegetation medium-term workplan

3 Ozone: Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Ecological processes and supporting services: - Primary production (and C cycling) - Nutrient cycling - Stomatal functioning (and water cycling) Provisioning services: - Crop production - Timber production Biodiversity (including case-study Mediterranean) Regulating services: - C sequestration and global warming - Air quality (via effects on vegetation) - Methane emissions - Water cycling - Flowering, pollination, insect signalling Cultural services (leisure, recreation, amenity) Valuing ozone impacts on ecosystem services Conclusions and research recommendations Contributions from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and UK

4 Stomatal functioning & water cycling Stomatal ozone flux or Phytotoxic Ozone Dose (PODy) determines impact No clear pattern impact of ozone on stomata, except tendency for opening to occur at lower concentrations Total number No effect Sluggish control Increased opening Stomatal Closing Crops (no. of species) Crops (no. of experiments) Trees (no. of species) Trees (no. of experiments) Grasslands (no. of species) Grasslands (no. of expts.) Total (no. of species) Total (no. of experiments) Ozone range (25 th to 75 th percentile) ppb ppb ppb ppb Mean ozone concentration 59 ppb 91 ppb 67 ppb 89 ppb

5 Ozone and water cycling: catchment scale SE USA, Appalachian region Measured flow O 3 + climate (R 2 = 0.78) Climate only (R 2 = 0.51) Sun et al. (2012) GCB 18: Ozone contributes to variation in late season streamflow by as much as 23% Ozone at near ambient concentration reduces stomatal control Consequences: Increase plant water use & transpiration, reduced streamflow Loss of stomatal sensitivity will increase drought frequency and severity, affecting ecosystem hydrology and productivity, and has implications for flow-dependent aquatic biota

6 Global C and water cycle % Δ GPP % Δ Veg C % Δ Soil C % Δ Total C % Δ Runoff % Δ Gs Control Fixed stomata JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator; Sitch et al., Nature, 2007) Simulated future percentage changes (% Δ) (In: Harmens & Mills, 2012) Current model ( Control ): Ozone impacts on vegetation act to increase river runoff and freshwater availability Fixed stomata : Such an increase will not occur if ozone has adverse impacts on stomatal functioning Despite differences in stomatal conductance response between simulations, differences in response of the C cycle are rather modest

7 European European moss moss survey survey 2010/11 Conducted every 5 year since 1990 Heavy metals, nitrogen since 2005, POPs since 2010 Coordination by ICP Vegetation: since 2000 Indication of spatial patterns and temporal trends of deposition atmospheric pollutants to vegetation

8 Countries participating in 2010/11 Albania Austria S Belarus Belgium S Bulgaria S Croatia Czech Rep Denmark (Faroe Isl.) Estonia Finland France POPs Iceland S Italy (Bolzano) Kosovo Macedonia NorwayS, POPs Poland POPs Romania (4 regions) Black: heavy metals (25) S = sulphur (8) Russian Federation Slovakia S SloveniaS, POPs (4 regions) Spain (3 regions) POPs Sweden SwitzerlandS, POPs Ukraine (Donetsk) Blue: heavy metals and N (15) POPs = persistent organic pollutants (6) Italics: country report produced (13)

9 Spatial patterns 2010/11 Cadmium Lead Mercury Nitrogen Cd and Pb: highest concentrations in Romania and Slovakia, lowest concentrations in northern Europe (but Cd also low in Kosovo, Albanian and regions of Russian Federation) Hg: more even distribution (global pollutant), highest values in Albania & Macedonia Considerable decline since 2005 in Belgium (all metals) and Macedonia (many metals) N: - Similar to results 2005/6; lowest concentrations northern Finland, highest values western-central Europe and parts of south-eastern Europe - 5% decline between (7% decline EMEP modelled deposition for EU 27)

10 Cd moss (mg kg -1 ) Temporal trends heavy metals Cd deposition (g km -2 y -1 ) Pb moss (mg kg -1 ) Pb deposition (g km -2 y -1 ) Hg moss (mg kg -1 ) Hg deposition (g km -2 y -1 ) Cadmium Lead Mercury Year Year Year Decline moss since 2005: 7% 36% 20% Decline moss since 1990: 51% 77% 23% (since 1995) Decline EMEP deposition: 51% 74% 27% (since 1995) since 1990 Mosses provide field-based measurements at high spatial resolution, supporting spatial patterns and temporal trends of EMEP-modelled heavy metal deposition (especially for Cd and Pb) and to some extent for nitrogen (Harmens et al., 2010, 2011, 2012; Holy et al., 2010; Schröder et al., 2010a,b)

11 EECCA/SEE & Outreach Participation in research and recent Task Force meetings: Ozone Moss survey SEE EECCA Outside UNECE SEE: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey EECCA: Belarus, Russian Federation, Ukraine Outside UNECE: Brasil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Japan, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa EECCA: Translation WGE impacts brochure & moss survey leaflet in Russian Enhance participation moss survey with potential coordinating role in the future Identify ozone experts for future collaboration, e.g. in biomonitoring programme Outside UNECE: Further develop ozone work in Mediterranean basin, including North Africa Position paper presented at third Task Force meeting of Malé Declaration countries (South Asia), 9-10 August 2012, Chonburi, Thailand: - Priority areas of future collaboration identified - Funding opportunities for collaborative projects need to be explored

12 Future contributions & key science areas (1) Collate further evidence of ozone impacts on vegetation (ozone: priority pollutant and short-lived climate forcer) Enhance EECCA/SEE participation and continue outreach to other regions 2014: Report on air pollution deposition to, and impacts on vegetation, in EECCA/SEE and Asia 2015: Next European moss survey 2016: Report on current and future ozone impacts in the Mediterranean basin (Europe and North Africa), including implications for food security Thematic reviews, including country-contributions 2014: Interacting effects of co-occuring pollutants (such as ozone and nitrogen) and climatic stresses on vegetation (input from ECLAIRE project) Needed: Assess co-benefits of climate change and air pollution abatement for impacts on vegetation (WGE: ecosystems and human health)

13 Future contributions & key science areas (2) Continue fruitful collaboration within WGE & with EMEP/TFIAM/TFRN/TFHTAP/NEBEI: Flux-based methodology simplified for application in integrated assessment modelling, now being incorporated in the GAINS model Indicators for cost-benefit analysis (Guidance document VII, impacts analysis) 2013/14: Contribute to HTAP workshop on impacts of air pollution 2015: Report on the implications of rising background ozone for vegetation in Europe (contribute findings to TFHTAP) Ongoing: Assessment of performance of EMEP HM model using 2010/11 moss data Further development ozone risk assessment methodology for crops, (semi-)natural vegetation and trees (note: national funding required to apply methodology and collate new data, particularly from field-based exposure experiments, and from the Mediterranean and eastern Europe) 2015: Update of chapter 3 of the Modelling and Mapping Manual Needed: Methodology development (dose-response relationships) and application in Asia and other regions under climatic conditions occurring in those regions

14 Knowledge transfer and changes ICP Vegetation is keen to continue to play a key role in knowledge transfer between science and policy, within and outside the Convention (e.g. short brochures) Suggested changes: Improve two-way science-policy communication and workplan (e.g. ICP Chairs attending WGSR/EB meetings) Improve Convention web site for the outside world Collaboration between WGE and EMEP on thematic brochures (full assessment reports required as scientific back-up?) More capacity in EMEP to support ozone effects work

15 Capacity of ICP Vegetation ICP Vegetation has capacity to meet the needs, i.e. - Review and analyses of existing data - New experimental work requires national funding Available Trust Fund, lead-country and country funds affect ambition levels ICP Vegetation benefits from a flexible structure with a core-group of experts Links with EECCA/SEE and outreach to other regions hampered by available funding from those countries Liaise with other Convention bodies regarding nitrogen impacts on vegetation (often different group of experts than ozone group). If considered a priority together with ozone, than moss survey work (heavy metals, POPs) should be led by eastern European country. ICP VEGETATION

16 No. of participants No. of countries 26 years of ICP Vegetation Participation Task Force meetings No. of participants No. of countries Year 27 th Task Force meeting January 2014, (near) Paris, France (starting with one-day workshop) Thank you very much for your attention!