Assessment of Dry Deposition and Total Acidifying Loads in Europe

In describing the effects of acidification on the level of ecosystems, acid loads should be available at least on the size of ecosystems. Until now no deposition maps on this resolution are available, hampering accurate estimation of exceedances of critical loads in Europe. Current methods and models for estimating deposition of acidifying components differ in the used horizontal resolution i.e. varying from 5 × 5 km up to 150 × 150 km. These include inferential models applied in different countries of Europe, where enough measurements of concentrations and meteorological parameters are available. For Europe as a whole long-range transport model results based on emission estimates (EMEP, TREND) have been available. Too few measurements are available in Europe to apply the inferential method for deposition mapping. Within the framework of BIATEX a so called merging method was developed, the EDACS model, combining long-range transport modelling and inferential methods to map deposition of acidifying components on a small scale of Europe. Maps of small scale fluxes of Europe with this method are presented in this review. The maps are produced in close co-operation with EMEP.