Europe forests

Since SO2 and NO2 are criteria pollutants, their emissions are regulated. In addition, for the purposes of abating acid deposition in the United States, the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments require that nationwide SO2 and NO emissions be reduced by approximately 10 million and 2 million t/yr, respectively, by the year 2000. Reasons for these reductions are based on concerns which include acidification of lakes and streams, acidification of poorly buffered soils, and acid damage to materials. An additional major concern is that acid deposition is contributing to the die-back of forests at high elevations in the eastern United States and in Europe. 

As of 1995, the forest industry in the United States employed about 1.6 million people and produced products valued at over 200 biUion each year, approximately 20 biUion of which was in exports. There were 350 pulp mills, 600 paper and board mills, and ca 4500 converting plants in the United States producing ca 30% of the total world production. The United States and Western Europe, which represent ca 13% of the world population, consumed about 60% of production. 

The impact of acid deposition on forests depends on the quantity of acidic components received by the forest system, the species present, and the soil composition. Numerous studies have shown that widespread areas in the eastern portion of North America and parts of Europe are being... 

Charcoal is used in electrically heated furnaces to smelt specialty metals such as ferrosilicon. It is a preferred household fuel in developing countries with adequate forest resources. In the United States 95 percent of charcoal use is for barbecuing, while in Japan and Europe charcoal use is split evenly between cooking and industrial needs. 

Plants may be affected by indirect modifications of the environment. Soil acidification, for example, can cause the leaching of nutrients, and the release of toxic aluminum. These effects may operate together to produce nutrient deficiencies or imbalances to plants. High soil concentrations of aluminum may prevent uptake and utilization of nutrients by plants.Increased availability of aluminum in soils has been implicated as a cause of forest declines in both Europe and the United States, possibly through the toxic effects on small feeder roots 14),... 

National initiatives in North America and Europe are designed to reduce pollution emissions from both stationary and mobile sources. Independently of whether they succeed in reducing pollutant loadings, the available evidence indicates that alterations in affected forests will continue. Obviously, no one knows what affected forests will be like in 50 years. There is little doubt that they will be different. And the sooner the anthropogenic causal factors - all of them - are reduced qualitatively and quantitatively, the better are the chances of retaining or regenerating forests that will have meaning and value for those who will want to use them. 

Several studies, based on models, examined the effects of land-use change on the global carbon cycle and conclude that there is a net release of carbon due to land clearing. However, the results and conclusions of these studies are based on assumed sizes of vegetation carbon pools which are inputs to the models. For example, Melillo et al. 24) concluded that boreal and temperate deciduous forests of the northern hemisphere are net sources of atmospheric carbon. Their analysis used values for carbon density derived by Whittaker and Likens 19) from work by Rodin and Bazilevich (27). Rodin and Bazilevich extrapolated results of small, unrelated studies in Europe and the USSR to estimate total biomass of Eurasian boreal and temperate deciduous forests. Their estimates have since been extrapolated to forests worldwide and are used often today. 

Through time, human civilizations have repeatedly made the same critical error the excessive exploitation of forest resources or the failure to practice forestry on a sustainable basis. The earliest recorded cases of excessive deforestation occurred approximately 5,000 B.P. in the very cradle of western civilization, Mesopotamia 19), Since that period, abusive levels of forest exploitation have severely degraded or caused the complete disappearance of forests in regions of Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Truly, the negative consequences of excessive levels of deforestation is a lesson that has been learned by few civilizations. 

The accident at the Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear reactor on April 26, 1986, contaminated much of the northern hemisphere, especially Europe, by releasing large amounts of radiocesium-137 and other radionuclides into the environment. In the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl at least 30 people died, more than 115,000 others were evacuated, and the consumption of locally produced milk and other foods was banned because of radiocontamination. The most sensitive local ecosystems were the soil fauna and pine forest communities. Elsewhere, fallout from Chernobyl measurably contaminated freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems, including flesh and milk of domestic livestock. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) calves in Norway showed an increasing frequency of chromosomal aberrations that seemed to correlate with cesium-137 tissue concentrations tissue concentrations, in turn, were related to cesium-137 in lichens, an efficient absorber of airborne particles containing radiocesium and the main food source of reindeer during winter. A pattern similar to that of reindeer was documented in moose (Alces) in Scandinavia. 

Tuck G, Glending MJ, Smith P, House JI, Wattenbach M (2006) The potential distribution of bioenergy crops in Europe under present and future climate. Biomass Bioenergy 30 183-197 Vance ED, Mitchell CC (2000) Beneficial use of wood ash as an agricultural soil amendment case studies from the United States forest products industry. In Power JF, Dick WA (eds) Land application of agricultural, industrial and municipal by-products. SSSA, Madison, WI, pp 567-582... 

Figure 10. Mass distribution of chemical species in the Oak Forest ecosystem, Central Europe (Jakucs, 1985).

Table 9. The bio geochemical fluxes and pools in the Oak Forest ecosystem of Central Europe.

Variable geographical conditions and distribution of emission source causes highly uneven distribution of ecosystem-specific deposition patterns across Europe. From the viewpoint of the adverse effects it appears that the most interesting ecosystems are forests, arable lands, grasslands, and freshwaters. In Figure 19 depositions of cadmium to forests and to arable lands are exemplified. As seen, in areas where there are both forests and arable lands, deposition fluxes to forests are substantially higher than to arable lands. 

Priputina I., Abramychev, A., Bashkin, V. (2002). Preliminary calculations of critical loads for Pb and Cd in forest ecosystems of the European Russia // Preliminary modelling and mapping of critical loads for cadmium and lead in Europe. RIVM. Report 259101011/2002. pp. 105-107. 

Reinds, G-J., De Vries, W., Groenenber, B-J. (2001). Critical loads of lead and cadmium for European Forest Soils. In Modelling and Mapping of Critical Thresholds in Europe. CCE Status Report 2001. RIVM. Belthoven. pp. 81-90. 

Approximately 30% of the earth s land surface is forested, and around half of this is harvested commercially. Over 80% of the wood for all industrial uses comes from the forests of North America, Europe and what was formerly the Soviet Union. Approximately two thirds of this is either sawn or peeled. Paper is generally made either from logs that are unsuitable for sawing or peeling or from residues arising from these processes. 

One of the most debated environmental issues of the past fifteen to twenty years has been the exploitation of the forests for wood for paper making. Approximately 30% of the earth s land surface is forested, and around half of this is harvested commercially for industrial purposes (Chapter 1). Over 80% of this wood for industrial use comes from the forests of North America, Europe and what was formerly the Soviet Union. Wood has been the primary fibre source for pulp and paper production world-wide for many years, and it is necessary to take a global view of its consumption. Wood consumption world-wide has more than doubled since 1950 from 1.5 billion to 3.5 billion m3 (United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation). Approximately half of this is used for fuelwood and half for industrial use. The principal driving force for this increase in consumption has been the increase in world population which shows a close correlation with wood consumption (Figure 10.1). 

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