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Wamelink GWW, Goedhart PW, Roelofsen HD, Bobbink R, Posch M, van Dobben HF, Biurrun I, Bonari G, Dengler J, Dítě D, Garbolino E, Jansen J, Jašková AK, Lenoir J, Peterka T. A novel method to estimate the response of habitat types to nitrogen deposition. Environ Pollut 2024; 349:123844. [PMID: 38580065 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2023] [Revised: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
Increasing nitrogen depositions adversely affect European landscapes, including habitats within the Natura2000 network. Critical loads for nitrogen deposition have been established to quantify the loss of habitat quality. When the nitrogen deposition rises above a habitat-specific critical load, the quality of the focal habitat is expected to be negatively influenced. Here, we investigate how the quality of habitat types is affected beyond the critical load. We calculated response curves for 60 terrestrial habitat types in the Netherlands to the estimated nitrogen deposition (EMEP-data). The curves for habitat types are based on the occurrence of their characteristic plant species in North-Western Europe (plot data from the European Vegetation Archive). The estimated response curves were corrected for soil type, mean annual temperature and annual precipitation. Evaluation was carried out by expert judgement, and by comparison with gradient deposition field studies. For 39 habitats the response to nitrogen deposition was judged to be reliable by five experts, while out of the 41 habitat types for which field studies were available, 25 showed a good agreement. Some of the curves showed a steep decline in quality and some a more gradual decline with increasing nitrogen deposition. We compared the response curves with both the empirical and modelled critical loads. For 41 curves, we found a decline already starting below the critical load.
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Affiliation(s)
- G W W Wamelink
- Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
| | - P W Goedhart
- Biometris, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - H D Roelofsen
- Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - R Bobbink
- B-WARE Research Centre, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - M Posch
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria
| | - H F van Dobben
- Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - I Biurrun
- Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain
| | - G Bonari
- University of Siena, Siena, Italy
| | - J Dengler
- Vegetation Ecology Research Group, Institute for Natural Resource Management (IUNR), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Wädenswil, Switzerland; Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - D Dítě
- Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | | | - J Jansen
- Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - A K Jašková
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk Univerzity, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - J Lenoir
- UMR CNRS, "Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés" (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, 7058, Amiens, France
| | - T Peterka
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk Univerzity, Brno, Czech Republic
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