Workshop on N Deposition, Critical Loads and Biodiversity

16-18th November, 2009: Edinburgh, UK

General Information

Travel and Accommodations

Field Trip Opportunity – Sun. Nov. 15

Register Online (Registration is closed)

Workshop Downloads

Agenda

Participants List

Background Documents to Discussion Sessions

Supporting Workshop Documents

Poster, Plenary, and Working Group Abstracts

Speaker Bios

Posters

Workshop Goals

• Assess N deposition estimates at regional to global scales;
• Evaluate N critical loads and their exceedances as suitable tools/indicators;
• Consider options for the assessment of ecosystem responses to N addition in different regions of the world;
• Integrate global scientific knowledge and promote policy and management actions.

Increases in nitrogen (N) deposition in broad areas of Europe and North America, and parts of Asia, over the last 50 years have resulted in losses of plant diversity, shifts in plant communities, changes in ecosystem services and food webs, and other adverse environmental effects.

Recent modelling projects increased rates of atmospheric N deposition over the next decades in most regions of the globe. Some parts of the world, such as Europe and Canada, have adopted an effects threshold approach for assessing the impacts of N deposition, known as Critical Loads.

N deposition is above or approaching critical loads in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, shortcomings in several areas currently hamper adoption of the approach and general assessment of nitrogen impacts.

Key Issues

• Significant uncertainty in total deposition estimates around the globe;
• Uncertainty about the relation between biodiversity loss, N (dynamics) and critical loads;
• Lack of field-based evidence for biodiversity effects;
• Indicators of biodiversity loss in areas that have exceeded critical N loads;
• Accounting for impacts of N addition on ecosystem services and climate change interactions.

Workshop Topics

The Workshop will address these needs by considering five key topic areas in plenary and breakout sessions. Key topic areas:

• Progress in monitoring and modelling estimates of N deposition at local, regional and global scales.
• Factors affecting N deposition impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem biodiversity
• Development of the critical loads concept and its application to different regions of the world.
• Importance of N deposition effects on ecosystem services and interactions with other pollutants (e.g. ozone) and climate change
• Implications of current knowledge on N deposition and impacts for policy, management and capacity building needs.

Workshop Agenda (PDF, 96KB) >

Overarching themes will include the exchange of information between different regions and disciplines and how measurements and approaches for assessing N deposition and biodiversity loss can be harmonized at a global scale.

Target Participants

Scientific experts in N deposition and climate change effects on ecosystem structure and functioning:

• N deposition modelling and monitoring;
• Ecologists and eco-physiologists studying the effects of N deposition in terrestrial, aquatic, and wetland ecosystems;
• Critical load experts and dynamic modellers of impacts;
• Experts on the impacts of N deposition and climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Policy advisers, generalists, and stakeholders:

• Representatives of relevant CBD and LRTAP Convention bodies
• Representatives of National Ministries and Agencies
• Representatives of biodiversity related organisations
• Conservation NGOs