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Regional trends in aquatic recovery from acidification in North America and Europe

Nature volume 401, pages 575–578 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Rates of acidic deposition from the atmosphere (‘acid rain’) have decreased throughout the 1980s and 1990s across large portions of North America and Europe1,2. Many recent studies have attributed observed reversals in surface-water acidification at national3 and regional4 scales to the declining deposition. To test whether emissions regulations have led to widespread recovery in surface-water chemistry, we analysed regional trends between 1980 and 1995 in indicators of acidification (sulphate, nitrate and base-cation concentrations, and measured (Gran) alkalinity) for 205 lakes and streams in eight regions of North America and Europe. Dramatic differences in trend direction and strength for the two decades are apparent. In concordance with general temporal trends in acidic deposition, lake and stream sulphate concentrations decreased in all regions with the exception of Great Britain; all but one of these regions exhibited stronger downward trends in the 1990s than in the 1980s. In contrast, regional declines in lake and stream nitrate concentrations were rare and, when detected, were very small. Recovery in alkalinity, expected wherever strong regional declines in sulphate concentrations have occurred, was observed in all regions of Europe, especially in the 1990s, but in only one region (of five) in North America. We attribute the lack of recovery in three regions (south/central Ontario, the Adirondack/Catskill mountains and midwestern North America) to strong regional declines in base-cation concentrations that exceed the decreases in sulphate concentrations.

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Figure 1: Lake and stream monitoring sites.
Figure 2: Regional acidification trend results.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the LRTAP Working Group on Effects for their support; this Working Group supports the production of international, quality-controlled, comparable data. We also acknowledge the work of the ICP Programme Centre at the Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA), where the data are collated, verified and archived, and thank T. J. Sullivan and M. R. Church for comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, 97333 , Oregon, USA

    J. L. Stoddard

  2. Environment Canada, PO Box 5050, Burlington , L7R 4A6, Ontario, Canada

    D. S. Jeffries

  3. Norwegian Institute for Air Research, PO Box 100, Kjeller, 2027, Norway

    A. Lükewille

  4. Environment Canada, PO Box 6227, Sackville , E4L 1G6, New Brunswick, Canada

    T. A. Clair

  5. Ontario Ministry of the Environment, PO Box 39, Dorset, P0A 1E0, Ontario, Canada

    P. J. Dillon

  6. Syracuse University, 220 Hinds Hall, Syracuse, 13244, New York, USA

    C. T. Driscoll

  7. Finnish Environment Institute, Box 140, Helsinki, 00251, Finland

    M. Forsius & J. Mannio

  8. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, PO Box 173 , Oslo, 0411, Norway

    M. Johannessen, B. L. Skjelkvåle & T. Traaen

  9. University of Maine, Sawyer Research Center, Orono, 04469, Maine, USA

    J. S. Kahl

  10. Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, 103 S. Main Street, Waterbury, 05676, Vermont, USA

    J. H. Kellogg

  11. Environment Canada, 105 McGill, Montreal, H2Y 2E7, Quebec, Canada

    A. Kemp

  12. Environmental Change Research Centre, University College , 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK

    D. T. Monteith & S. Patrick

  13. US Geological Survey, 425 Jordan Road , Troy, 12180, New York, USA

    P. S. Murdoch

  14. National Environmental Research Institute, PO Box 314, Silkeborg, 8600, Denmark

    A. Rebsdorf

  15. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, R3T 2N6, Manitoba, Canada

    M. P. Stainton

  16. Aquasence TEC, PO Box 95125, Amsterdam, 1090, The Netherlands

    H. van Dam

  17. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 1350 Femrite Drive, Monona, 53716 , Wisconsin, USA

    K. E. Webster

  18. Umweltbundesamt, Seelstrasse 6–10 , Berlin, 13581, Germany

    J. Wieting

  19. University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7050, Uppsala, 750 07, Sweden

    A. Wilander

Authors
  1. J. L. Stoddard
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  20. H. van Dam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. L. Stoddard.

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Stoddard, J., Jeffries, D., Lükewille, A. et al. Regional trends in aquatic recovery from acidification in North America and Europe. Nature 401, 575–578 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/44114

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