Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve

31 Oct, 11 PM - 31 Dec, 10 PM

California?s chaparral evolved with limited reactive nitrogen inputs. The availability of reactive nitrogen to the environment has increased since settlement but has more than doubled in the last fifty years. Nitrogen emission rates are 3-10 times greater in California than other western states. Nitrogen compounds enter the sky and are then deposited into the environment. Some of the compounds are used up by the biota, but the excess causes a cascading negative effect on the ecosystem. Negative consequences include reduced drinking water quality, eutrophication, elevated nitrogenous greenhouse gas emissions, fire hazards from the increased favorability of exotic annual grasses and decreased litter decomposition and soil acidification. In order to limit damage from air pollutants such as reactive nitrogen, public land managers are increasingly looking at critical loads as a tool for making policy decisions. Critical loads tell us the level that pollutants can abuse a system before problems arise. Recent advances in understanding ecosystem thresholds in tandem with refined federal policies and goals have opened the door to this ecosystem approach to protecting our surroundings from pollutants. Class I wilderness managers are required to regulate air pollution inputs. Ecosystems differ in the rate they can absorb nitrogen deposition (Fenn 2010). Empirical determinations of critical loads for chaparral are sparse. It would be beneficial to more accurately assess the amount of reactive nitrogen deposition that will cause harm to chaparral. The goal of this study is to determine a refined critical load value for chaparral

Visit #26650 @Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 24412 | Research

Nitrogen deposition critical loads for streamwater leaching in chaprral catchments

graduate_student - California State University (CSU), Dominguez Hills

Reservation Members(s)

Kenneth Hanks Oct 31, 2011 - Dec 31, 2013 (793 days)
Group of 2 Research Scientist/Post Doc Oct 31, 2011 - Dec 31, 2013 (793 days)

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