Modelling Nitrogen Deposition on a Local Scale—A Review of the Current State of the Art

Ole Hertel; Carsten Ambelas Skjøth; Per Løfstrøm; Camilla Geels; Lise Marie Frohn; Thomas Ellermann; Peter Vangsbo Madsen

doi:10.1071/EN06038

REVIEW

Modelling Nitrogen Deposition on a Local Scale—A Review of the Current State of the Art

Ole Hertel ^A ^B , Carsten Ambelas Skjøth ^A , Per Løfstrøm ^A , Camilla Geels ^A , Lise Marie Frohn ^A , Thomas Ellermann ^A and Peter Vangsbo Madsen ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A National Environmental Research Institute, PO Box 358, Frederiksborgvej 399, Roskilde 4000, Denmark.

^B Corresponding author. Email: ole.hertel@dmu.dk

Ole Hertel is Head of Section at the Danish National Environmental Research Institute, Department of Atmospheric Environment. He has developed and applied atmospheric transport-chemistry models on all scales from single streets to long-range transport. His research interests are in the assessment of atmospheric nitrogen deposition to marine and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as in the assessment of human exposure to air pollution. He gained his PhD from University of Bergen, Norway in 1995. He is a titular member of the IUPAC Division for Chemistry of the Environment.

Environmental Chemistry 3(5) 317-337 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN06038
Submitted: 28 June 2006 Accepted: 7 September 2006 Published: 26 October 2006

Abstract. Local ammonia emissions from agricultural activities are often associated with high nitrogen deposition in the close vicinity of the sources. High nitrogen (N) inputs may significantly affect the local ecosystems. Over a longer term, high loads may change the composition of the ecosystems, leading to a general decrease in local biodiversity. In Europe there is currently a significant focus on the impact of atmospheric N load on local ecosystems among environmental managers and policy makers. Model tools designed for application in N deposition assessment and aimed for use in the regulation of anthropogenic nitrogen emissions are, therefore, under development in many European countries. The aim of this paper is to present a review of the current understanding and modelling parameterizations of atmospheric N deposition. A special focus is on the development of operational tools for use in environmental assessment and regulation related to agricultural ammonia emissions. For the often large number of environmental impact assessments needed to be carried out by local environmental managers there is, furthermore, a need for simple and fast model systems. These systems must capture the most important aspects of dispersion and deposition of N in the nearby environment of farms with animal production. The paper includes a discussion on the demands on the models applied in environmental assessment and regulation and how these demands are fulfilled in current state-of-the-art models.

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by funds from the project ‘Operational Models for Ammonia Emission and Dispersion from Livestock Households’ under the research programme for the Danish Aquatic Action Plan III (Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Fishery, Act 166 of 17 May 2004). One of the authors (O.H.) was supported by a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation. Dr. Mark Sutton (CEH inburgh) is acknowledged for his helpful correspondence during the preparation of the manuscript. Finally, we acknowledge four anonymous reviewers for their careful review of the manuscript.

References

Modelling Nitrogen Deposition on a Local Scale—A Review of the Current State of the Art

Acknowledgements

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