ICP Waters Heleen de Wit Head Programme Centre NIVA Gunnar Skotte, Chair Norwegian Environment Agency Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 1
Programme aims Assess the degree and geographic extent of the impact of atmospheric pollution, in particular acidification, on surface waters Collect information to evaluate dose/response relationships Describe and evaluate long-term trends and variation in aquatic chemistry and biota attributable to atmospheric pollution Sulphur and nitrogen Heavy metals Persistent organic pollutants Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 2
Core activities Biological and chemical monitoring in acid-sensitive surface waters Database maintenance Biological and chemical intercalibration Reports and assessments Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 3
Participation in ICP Waters 20 countries participate regularly 12-14 countries at the TF meetings Number of TF participants around 30 Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 4
Chemical data Biological data Participation in TF meetings 2012-2014 Participating in chemical intercomparison 2012-2014 Participating in biological intercalibration 2012-2014 Armenia 2013 Austria 2014 Belarus 2014 Canada 2013 Croatia Czech Rep. 2014 2011 Estonia 2014 Finland 2014 France Germany 2014 2013 Ireland 2012 Italy 2014 Latvia 2014 2012 Montenegro 2013 Netherlands Norway 2014 2013 Poland 2013 Russia Spain 2014 Sweden 2014 2013 Switzerland 2014 2013 UK 2014 2010 USA 2013 Total 19 7 17 19 8 Belgium Iceland Lithuania Portugal Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 5
ICP Waters monitoring network Europe North America Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 6
Recent and upcoming reports Biodiversity in freshwaters (2013) Biodiversity and climate change (2015) ICP Waters Trend report (2014-15) WGE Trend report (2015) Mercury (2016) Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 7
Biodiversity in freshwaters Benthic invertebrates and water chemistry from 55 rivers and 34 lakes from 1982 to 2011 Biodiversity indices include ALL species. Acidification indices include ONLY acid-sensitive species Conclusions: The overall biodiversity for most sites has increased since the 1980s Velle et al., 2013. ICP W report 10.. Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 8
WGE trend report Separate presentation Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 9
ICP Waters trend report Garmo et al, 2015 Trend assessment - water chemistry Available at icp-waters.no also containing data from ICP IM Focus on changes in water chemistry after year 2000 Sulphur deposition reduced to levels approaching critical loads, has water chemistry improved beyond critical limits? How does climate affect chemical recovery? Update on biological trends Prognosis - What is expected recovery in 2020? Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 10
Water chemistry 2000-2011 North America Europe Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 11
Significance (z-score) Trend summary SO4* NO3 BC* Europe Alk ANC H DOC trend slope North America trend slope Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 12
Non-marine sulphate Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 13
Nitrate Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 14
ANC Alkalinity Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 15
H+ Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 16
DOC Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 17
Prognosis 2020 Prognosis for development in the near future based on the revised Gothenburg protocol - What is expected recovery in 2020? Steady-state model: Catchment inputs of S equal outputs of S (x F-factor) Base cations from weathering and from mobilization by SO4 Nitrate leaching is constant ANC calculated from base cations, SO4 Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 18
Validation of approach with Is there a bias in EMEP deposition? EMEP can deviate from real deposition, but not in a systematic way ICP IM data Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 19
Estimated SO4 and ANC are acceptable Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 20
Examples Lapland, Vasikkajärvi Round Loch of Glenhead Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 21
Prognosis 2020 Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 22
Conclusions prognosis Continued decrease in sulphur deposition in 2020 Predicted small improvements in water quality (ANC) Interannual variation in ANC related to deposition, climate, seasalts will be larger than improvement related to reduced sulphur deposition between 2010 and 2020 Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 23
Trends in biology Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 24
Mercury report Focus on mercury in the aquatic environment Hg in fish (perch) increases with weight and length More Hg in fish from 2008 (red dots) than from 1991 (blue dots) Fjeld and Rognerud, 2009. NIVA report. Pollutants in freshwater fishes, 2008. Mercury in perch and organic pollutants in brown trout. Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 25
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Collaboration with ICP IM Encouragement from Geneva for more collaboration between ICP W and ICP IM Possibility for more co-operation on trends Joint Task Force meeting in 2016 (?) Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 27
Welcome to ICP Waters Task Force Meeting Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland from 6-8 of October 2015 Heleen de Wit www.icp-waters.no 28