Critical Loads of Nitrogen and Estimated Exceedances in NPS Areas (2017–2019)
National Park Service, Air Resources Division. 2022. Critical Loads of Nitrogen and Estimated Exceedances in NPS Areas (2017–2019). Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Air Resources Division, Denver, Colorado
Critical loads are a tool the NPS uses to assess and understand the impacts of nitrogen deposition to park ecosystems and help inform policy and management decisions to protect them. Response rates and critical loads of sensitive ecosystem components are taken from published literature and applied to NPS units using appropriate environmental factors. Critical loads are the amount of deposition below which significant harmful effects on specified sensitive elements of the environment do not occur according to present knowledge. (All values are in kg/ha/yr). This analysis compares critical loads to the range of nitrogen deposition (from the 2017–2019 average NADP Total Deposition model) present within a boundary. When the total deposition exceeds the critical load there is an increased risk of ecological harm.
- Type
- Tabular Dataset
- Authors
- National Park Service, Air Resources Division
- Date of Issue
- 2022-01-24
- Publisher
- Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Air Resources Division, Denver, Colorado
- Keywords
- critical loads, herbaceous species, lichen, mycorrhizae, nitrogen deposition, tree growth, tree survival
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Air and Climate | Air Quality | Wet and Dry Deposition , Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Terrestrial Complex