Concentrations ecosystem

Receptors. The receptor can be a person, animal, plant, material, or ecosystem. The criteria and hazardous air pollutants were so designated because, at sufficient concentrations, they can cause adverse health effects to human receptors. Some of the criteria pollutants also cause damage to plant receptors. An Air QuaUty Criteria Document (12) exists for each criteria pollutant and these documents summarize the most current Hterature concerning the effects of criteria pollutants on human health, animals, vegetation, and materials. The receptors which have generated much concern regarding acid deposition are certain aquatic and forest ecosystems, and there is also some concern that acid deposition adversely affects some materials. 

A variety of models have been developed to study acid deposition. Sulfuric acid is formed relatively slowly in the atmosphere, so its concentrations are beUeved to be more uniform than o2one, especially in and around cities. Also, the impacts are viewed as more regional in nature. This allows an even coarser hori2ontal resolution, on the order of 80 to 100 km, to be used in acid deposition models. Atmospheric models of acid deposition have been used to determine where reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions would be most effective. Many of the ecosystems that are most sensitive to damage from acid deposition are located in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Early acid deposition models helped to estabUsh that sulfuric acid and its precursors are transported over long distances, eg, from the Ohio River Valley to New England (86—88). Models have also been used to show that sulfuric acid deposition is nearly linear in response to changing levels of emissions of sulfur dioxide (89). 

An appreciation of the extent to which invertebrate species may be exposed to such chemicals comes from considering the effects of complex mixtures. In the North Atlantic ecosystem alone, hundreds of pollutant chemicals have been identified. These include metals, synthetic and chlorinated organics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Over 300 aromatic hydrocarbons have been detected in some regions of the Chesapeake Bay, and high concentrations of PCBs have been... 

Under low-dose conditions, forest ecosystems act as sinks for atmospheric pollutants and in some instances as sources. As indicated in Chapter 7, the atmosphere, lithosphere, and oceans are involved in cycling carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and other elements through each subsystem with different time scales. Under low-dose conditions, forest and other biomass systems have been utilizing chemical compounds present in the atmosphere and releasing others to the atmosphere for thousands of years. Industrialization has increased the concentrations of NO2, SO2, and CO2 in the "clean background" atmosphere, and certain types of interactions with forest systems can be defined. 

The interactions of air pollutants with forests at low-dose concentrations result in imperceptible effects on the natural biological cycles of these species. In some instances, these interactions may be beneficial to the forest ecosystem. Forests, as well as other natural systems, act as sinks for the removal of trace gases from the atmosphere. 

Consider a lake with a smaU watershed in a forest ecosystem. The forest and vegetation can be considered as an acid concentrator. SO2, NO2, and acid aerosol are deposited on vegetation surfaces during dry periods and rainfalls they are washed to the soil floor by low-pH rainwater. Much of the acidity is neutralized by dissolving and mobilizing minerals in the soil. Aluminum, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium are leached from the soil into surface waters. The ability of soils to tolerate acidic deposition is very dependent on the alkalinity of the soil. The soil structure in the... 

The documentation of regional level terrestrial consequences of acid deposition is complicated. For example, forested ecosystems m eastern North America can he influenced by other factors such as high atmospheric ozone concentrations, drought, insect outbreaks and disease, sometimes from non-native sources. However there is a general consensus on some impacts of acidic depositon on both soils and forests m sensitive regions. 

High concentrations of SO, can produce tempo-rai y breathing difficulties in asthmatic children and in adults who are active outdoors. Sulfur dioxide also can directly damage plants and has been shown to decrease crop yields. In addition, sulfur oxides can be converted to sulfuric acid and lead to acid rain. Acid rain can harm ecosystems by increasing the acidity of soils as well as surface waters such as rivers, lakes, and streams. Sulfur dioxide levels fell, on average, by 39 percent between 1989 and 1998. 

A general conclusion from the review of the distribution of plutonium between different compartments of the ecosystem was that the enrichment of plutonium from water to food was fairly well compensated for by man s metabolic discrimination against plutonium. Therefore, under the conditions described above, it may be concluded that plutonium from a nuclear waste repository in deep granite bedrock is not likely to reach man in concentrations exceeding permissible levels. However, considering the uncertainties in the input equilibrium constants, the site-specific Kd-values and the very approximate transport equation, the effects of the decay products, etc. — as well as the crude assumptions in the above example — extensive research efforts are needed before the safety of a nuclear waste repository can be scientifically proven. 

Environmental chemists funded by the Department of Energy have studied these sources to learn as much as they can about the chemistry of plutonium dispersed in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Much of the early work determined the concentrations in various water bodies and the distribution between water and sediment. Table I shows results of various freshwater and marine surveys(10). 

On a global scale, the atmosphere serves as the major pathway for the transport and deposition of contaminants from emission sources to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem receptors (22, 27). Once a contaminant is airborne, the processes of atmospheric di sion, transport, transformation, and deposition act to determine its fate. These processes are complex and the degree to which they influence the fate of a particular contaminant is dependent on its physico-chemical characteristics, the properties and concentrations of coexisting substances, and the prevailing meteorological conditions, including wind, precipitation, humidity, temperature, clouds, fog, and solar irradiation. 

We must also consider the consequences of forty years of ecosystem pollution loading. Compared with soil analyses of heavy metal concentrations made in 1965, cadmium, copper, lead and zinc levels are now elevated 24) to the point where laboratory studies have shown that red spruce root and shoot growth is reduced, growth of obligatory mycorrhizal fungi is repressed and... 

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