ÉCLAIRE - Effects of Climate Change on Air Pollution Impacts and Response Strategies for European Ecosytems - second periodic report 01/04/2013 to 30/09/2014
Year: 2013
Type: report
Abstract: description of project context and objectivesExceedances of threshold levels for ecosystem impacts of ozone (O3) result in significant impacts on semi-natural ecosystems, while an estimated ~€7 billion in the year 2000 were lost due to phyto-toxic impacts of O3 on arable crops.Due to intercontinental transport, future O3 concentrations will depend crucially on how emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) evolve in the developing world, outside Europe, but it is likely to have severe implications for the economy and global food security.At the same time, atmospheric reactive nitrogen compounds (Nr) represent an increasingly important pollution driver of European land ecosystems, especially as emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the EU-27 have decreased by nearly 70% between 1990 and 2007, with much smaller reductions for NOx (~30%) and ammonia (NH3, ~15%) over the same period.Together, wet and dry deposition of both oxidized and reduced nitrogen are having multiple impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, in some cases increasing productivity and carbon storage.However, nitrogen deposition is also threatening ecosystem functioning and plant community composition in many areas, representing an annual loss of ~€10-70 billion.Last but not least, many atmospheric pollutants that affect ecosystems, like ozone, nitrogen and secondary aerosols, are not only important climate forcing agents, but their atmospheric burden strongly responds to climate change in turn.The interactions of climate change, change in nitrogen deposition, increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration, changing aerosol burdens and changing ozone background and peak levels make projections of pollution impacts on terrestrial ecosystems challenging.This is especially so, since these affect ecosystem physical and biogeochemical responses on different spatial and temporal scales, and individually in either positive or negative ways (e.g., on ecosystem productivity, water use efficiency, carbon storage or biodiversity).What is more, changing biogenic emissions in response to air pollution and/or climate change can affect air pollution and climate change in turn, in a complex system that contains multiple, interacting feedbacks.To optimise the efficacy of European emission control strategies in the global pollution-climate change context, it is vitally important that we develop a consistent and process-based observational and modelling framework to understand how interactive atmospheric pollutants will impact ecosystems in response to climate and air pollution change.Focusing especially on the role of ozone and nitrogen, and where relevant their interactions with volatile organic compounds, aerosols and sulphur, the Overall Objectives of ÉCLAIRE are therefore to: O1: provide robust understanding of air pollution impacts on European land ecosystems including soils under changing climate conditions, and O2: provide reliable and innovative risk assessment methodologies for these ecosystem impacts of air pollution, including the economic implications, to support EU policy.ÉCLAIRE is targeting climate-ecosystem-atmosphere interactions and their implications for ecosystem effects at the European scale, combining observations and experiments in the field and laboratory with modelling experiments from plot to European scales, while accounting for changes in global background.The new scientific understanding and risk-assessment methodologies under climate change which are emerging from ÉCLAIRE will be of central importance to future air pollution policies. Description of work performed and main results
Authors: Mark Sutton, Clare Howard, Eiko Nemitz, Almut Arneth, Dave Simpson, Gina Mills, W. de Vries, Wilfried Winiwarter, Markus Amann, R. Alonso, Christof Ammann, Bill Bealey, V. Bermejo, A. Bleeker, Alessandro Cescatti, Frank Dentener, Lisa Emberson, C. D. Evans, Christophe Fléchard, Edwin Haas, Jean‐Paul Hettelingh, Mike Holland, Thomas F. Mentel, Elena Paoletti, Maximilian Posch, G.J. Reinds, Mark R. Theobald, Kristian Rost Albert, Carsten Ambelas Skjøth, Helle Vibke Andersen, Kirsti Ashworth, Stefan Åström, Niramson Azouz, Serina Bassin, Agnieszka Becher, Claus Beier, Alan Briolat, Malin Broberg, Patrick Bueker, Juergen Burkhardt, Klaus Butterbach‐Bahl, Hector Calvete, Marco Carozzi, Pierre Cellier, Federico Centoni, Maria Chiesa, Stainslaw Cieslik, Lieven Clarisse, Pierre Coheur, Mhairi Coyle, Céline Decuq, Chiara Di Marco, Eugenio Díaz‐Pinés, Vesna Djuricic, Ruth Doherty, U. Dragosits, Jean‐Louis Drouet, Vedrana Džaja Grgičin, F. Egger, Susana Elvira, Magnuz Engardt, Sophia Etzold, Richard Falk, Silvano Fares, Yannick Fauvel, Angelo Finco, Dominque Flura, D. Fowler, Martina Franz, Arnoud Frumau, Ivano Fumagalli, L. Ganzeveld, Héctor García Gómez, Rainer Gasché, Camilla Geels, Sophie Génermont, Giacomo Gerosa, Ignacio Gonzalez Fernandez, Iratxe González‐Aparicio, Christine Gritsch, Carsten Gruening, Daniel P. Hagberg, Pleijel Hakan, Helmut Haller, Harry Harmens, Berit Hasler, Didier Hauglustine, Felicity Hayes, C. Hendriks, Ole Hertel, C. Heyes, Kevin Hicks, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, László Horváth, Rasmus Houborg, Johanna Joensuu, Laurence Jones, Per Erik Karlsson, Zbigniew Klimont, Alexander Komarov, K. Krämer, Éric Lamaud, B. Langford, Juliette Lathière, David Leaver, Adrian Leip, Émeline Lequy, Maria Lindblad, Benjamin Loubet, Franceso Loretto, Rob Maas, Riccardo Marzuoli, Raia Silvia Massad, Olivier Maury, Serge Medinets, Lina M. Mercado, Palmina Messina, Mirco Migliavacca, Teis Nørgaard Mikkelsen, Saul Molina Herrera, Robert Monga, Andrea Móring, Silvana Munzi, Doan Nainggolan, Yasmine Ngadi, Jérôme Ogée, Stefan Olin, Rebecca Oliver, Riinu Ots, Susan Owen, Shyam Pariyar, Olga Pokorska, Élise Potier, И. В. Припутина, Isaura Rábago, Pekka Rantala, David Reay, Stefan Reis, Janne Rinne, Erin Roberts, Emma Robinson, E.C. Rowe, T. M. Ruuskanen, Javier Sanz Rodrigo, Alberto Sanz-Cobeña, Katarzyna Sawicka, Martijn Schaap, Simon Schallart, Wolfgang Schöpp, Katerina Sharps, Lucy J. Sheppard, Jadranka Skevin Sovic, Ute Skiba, Beth A. Smith, Alexandra Tiefenbacher, Sam Tomlinson, Juha-Pekka Touvinen, Marsailidh Twigg, Fernando Valiño, Antonio Vallejo, Martin Van Damme, Netty van Dijk, Violeta Velikova, Nico Vellingo, Sonja Vidič, Massimo Vieno, Polina Voylokov, Maria Raffaella Vuolo, Tamás Weidinger, Roy Wichink, Veronica Wolff, Roy Woolley, Cheng Wu, Sönke Zaehle, Sophie Zechmeister‐Boltenstern, Pablo Zuazo, Elena Zubkova
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W42372597