Tools for determining critical levels of atmospheric ammonia under the influence of multiple disturbances

Pinho, Pedro; Llop, Esteve; Ribeiro, Manuel; Cruz, Cristina; Soares, Amílcar; Pereira, Maria João Veloso da Costa Ramos; Branquinho, Cristina

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2014.01.024

Cited by 30 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…5). This confirms the value of functional group metrics as ecological indicators of nitrogen deposition (Giordani, 2007;Giordani et al, 2014;Pinho et al, 2011;2014a;2014b).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Our proposed CLEs were slightly higher than: i) the recommended CLE at the European level (1 µg m -3 ); ii) the previous value reported for a Portuguese semi-natural area in an open cork oak woodland (1.9 µg m -3 ; Pinho et al, 2011), iii) the recent values obtained for remote areas in Portugal, 0.6 µg m -3 (Pinho et al, 2014a). However, the value is similar to the 2.5 µg m -3 NOEC (No Observable Effect Concentration) suggested for an area influenced by a pig farm in Italy (Frati et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 60%

“…based on functional changes in lichen communities in Portugal (Pinho et al, 2011;2014a;2014b). Still, more research is warranted in this region to characterize the response of other ecosystem types such as dense forests.…”

Section: Cle Thresholds Have Been Proposed For Mediterranean Evergreementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Critical Levels of Atmospheric Ammonia in a Mediterranean Holm-Oak Forest in North-Eastern Spain

Aguillaume

Àvila

Pinho

et al. 2017

Water Air Soil Pollut

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Despite recent regulations, atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emissions have not changed much over the last decades and excessive nitrogen remains as one of the major drivers for biodiversity changes. To prevent deleterious effects on species and ecosystems it is very important to establish safety thresholds, such as those defined by the Critical Level (CLE) concept, "the concentration above which direct adverse effects on receptors may occur, based on present knowledge". Empirical critical levels of atmospheric NH3 have mainly been reported for temperate forests and there is a lack of information for Mediterranean forests. Here, we provide a case study on NH3 CLEs for a typical Mediterranean ecosystem, the holm-oak (Quercus ilex) forest. To derive the CLE value, we measured NH3 concentrations for 1 year at a distance gradient in the forest surrounding a point source (cattle farm) and used diversity changes of lichen functional groups to indicate the onset of adverse effects. We estimate a NH3 CLE threshold of 2.6 µg m-3 , a value that is higher than that reported in other Mediterranean ecosystems and suggests that the site has been already impacted by NH3 pollution in the past. In a more general context, this study confirms the validity of lichen functional groups to derive CLEs in Mediterranean forests and woodlands and contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the impacts of NH3 on ecosystems.

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“…5). This confirms the value of functional group metrics as ecological indicators of nitrogen deposition (Giordani, 2007;Giordani et al, 2014;Pinho et al, 2011;2014a;2014b).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 60%

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The Critical Levels of Atmospheric Ammonia in a Mediterranean Holm-Oak Forest in North-Eastern Spain

Aguillaume

Àvila

Pinho

et al. 2017

Water Air Soil Pollut

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“…The unresponsiveness of taxonomic diversity (species richness) to nitrogen pollution has been previously recognized (Pinho et al . ). Pielou's evenness index was the only index weakly related between US and EU data sets and with no relation to the environmental variables.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Tracking global change using lichen diversity: towards a global‐scale ecological indicator

Matos

Geiser²,

Hardman

et al. 2017

Methods Ecol Evol

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Summary Lichens have been used to efficiently track major drivers of global change from the local to regional scale since the beginning of the industrial revolution (sulphur dioxide) to the present (nitrogen deposition and climate change). Currently, the challenge is to universalize monitoring methodologies to compare global change drivers’ simultaneous and independent effects on ecosystems and to assess the efficacy of mitigation measures. Because two protocols are now used at a continental scale North America (US) and Europe (EU), it is timely to investigate the compatibility of the interpretation of their outcomes. For the first time, we present an analytical framework to compare the interpretation of data sets coming from these methods utilizing broadly accepted biodiversity metrics, featuring a paired data set from the US Pacific Northwest. The methodologies yielded highly similar interpretation trends between response metrics: taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and community composition shifts in response to two major drivers of global change (nitrogen deposition and climate). A framework was designed to incorporate surrogates of species richness (the most commonly used empirical trend in taxonomic diversity), shifts in species composition (compositional turnover) and metrics of functional diversity (link between community shifts to effects and ecosystem structure and functioning). These metrics are essential to more thoroughly comprehend biodiversity response to global change. Its inclusion in this framework enables future cross‐continental analysis of lichen biodiversity change from North America and Europe in response to global change. Future works should focus on developing independent metrics for response to global change drivers, namely climate and pollution, taking us one step closer to a lichen‐based global ecological indicator.

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“…The CLO is defined as ''a quantitative estimate of deposition of one or more pollutants below which significant harmful effects on specified elements of the environment do not occur according to present knowledge'' (Posthumus 1988), whereas the CLEs refer to the concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere above which adverse effects occur (Cape et al 2009). Pinho et al (2014) recently proposed a new tool to calculate CLEs by stratifying ammonia concentrations into classes and focusing on the highest diversity values. Based on the significant correlations between ammonia and biodiversity, the CLE of ammonia for Mediterranean evergreen woodlands was found to be 0.69 µg m −3…”

Section: The Use Of Lichen Functionalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling and Interpreting Lichen Diversity Data for Biomonitoring Purposes

Giordani

Brunialti

2014

Recent Advances in Lichenology

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Tools for determining critical levels of atmospheric ammonia under the influence of multiple disturbances

Cited by 30 publications

References 36 publications

The Critical Levels of Atmospheric Ammonia in a Mediterranean Holm-Oak Forest in North-Eastern Spain

The Critical Levels of Atmospheric Ammonia in a Mediterranean Holm-Oak Forest in North-Eastern Spain

Tracking global change using lichen diversity: towards a global‐scale ecological indicator

Sampling and Interpreting Lichen Diversity Data for Biomonitoring Purposes

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