NADP: Keeping You Connected, Issue 8

International Efforts of NADP

David Gay, NADP Program Coordinator

Most people think of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) as operating only in the U.S. While it’s true that the majority of monitoring sites are located on U.S. soil, the NADP National Trends Network (NTN), the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN), the Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN), and the Atmospheric Mercury Network (AMNet) have sites outside of the U.S. In fact, several of the NTN sites date back to the early days of NADP. Figure 1 shows a map of sites located outside of the U.S. including locations that have more than one NADP network. This article highlights some of NADP’s international partners.

Figure 1: Click to enlarge

Canada

NADP has had the longest running relationship with Canada. As of right now, 18 sites are operating in Canada within four of NADP’s networks.

Figure 2. Click to enlarge

The oldest Canadian NADP site was a quality assurance site, positioned next to the U.S. Canadian border. It operated both NADP site equipment and equipment for the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN), which is the Canadian equivalent of the NTN. This site in Sutton, Ontario began operating in the mid-1980s and allowed the comparison of NTN and CAPMoN wet deposition observations. Through this partnership, the NADP has has a very good long-term working relationship with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the primary site funder.

There are currently 18 sites operating in Canada. The AMNet is at two of those sites, AMoN is at three sites, MDN is at nine sites, and the NTN is at eight of those sites. The Kejimkujik National Park site in Nova Scotia operates three networks: MDN, AMNet, and AMoN. The “Keji” has been part of the NADP since 1996; the MDN site was one of the first in the MDN network (July 1996) and one of the first AMNet sites (January 2009; Figure 2).

Puerto Rico

Figure 3. Click to enlarge

The PR20 site in El Verde, Puerto Rico has one of the longest measurement records of all international NADP sites (Figure 3). Starting in February 1985 with the NTN, PR20 hosts a long term NTN site, MDN site, AMoN site, and also makes measurements of litterfall (i.e., dead plant material like leaves or twigs that have fallen to the ground). Of particular interest is that the observations (NTN, MDN) are actually made at the top of a 20-foot tower, above the forest canopy, at 350 feet (106.7 meters) above the ground. The site is operated by the University of Puerto Rico’s Center for Energy and Environmental Research, the United States Geological Survey, and the USDA-Forest Service; each are located at the El Verde Field Station within the Caribbean National Forest.

Virgin Islands

Figure 4. Click to enlarge

The Virgin Islands National Park-Lind Point site, VI01, began in April 1998 and is one of the longer running sites for the NTN (Figure 4). VI01 operates within the National Park system and is funded and operated by the National Park Service. The site is located near Cruz Bay on the western part of the island of Saint John in the U.S Virgin Islands. The sites pH record shows a distinct increase (less acidic) since 2006, after stable pH levels around 5.0 from 1999-2005. This increase is well correlated with a significant decrease in sulfate wet deposition.This site is also a part of the EPA Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET), which is also managed in cooperation with the National Park Service, to assess trends in pollutant concentrations, atmospheric deposition, and ecological effects due to changes in air pollutant emissions. The site is also part of the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network, which is a cooperative measurement program run by the National Park Service and other federal partners, and state air quality organizations.

Taiwan

Figure 5. Click to enlarge

Taiwan joined the NADP’s AMNet in January 2010 (Figure 5). While Taiwan operates its own mercury wet deposition network (very similar to NADP’s MDN), it also has a Tekran® mercury system located on Mt. Lulin which is one of the highest points in Taiwan (9,390 feet/2,862 meters). This site is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency of Taiwan and operated by the National Central University of Taiwan. This site has been operating a Tekran® mercury system longer than almost anywhere else in the world.

The site is perfectly situated to measure the gaseous mercury emissions transported out of Southeast Asia and China, the largest source area for mercury to the atmosphere. Information from this site is being used to compare to the concentrations of mercury at the U.S. AMNet sites, and provides a measurement record in a very different environment than the U.S.

NADP’s partnership with Taiwan has led to regional cooperation with more than 12 countries to establish an Asia Pacific Mercury Monitoring Network (APMMN). The APMMN seeks to systematically monitor wet deposition and atmospheric concentrations of mercury in a network of stations across East, Southeast, and South Asia.

Argentina

Argentina started a NTN sampling site near Playa Grande, Argentina in October 2011. The site has slightly modified sampling protocols. For example, they use a bag rather than a bucket to collect samples because buckets cannot be shipped through the mail. The site was started by Dr. Enrique Bucher at the Centro de Zoologı́a Aplicada (Applied Zoology), Universidad Nacional de Cordoba and supported in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Future Considerations

NADP is working with several scientists in Mexico to see if several sites along the coast of Mexico can be combined with NADP operations. In addition, NADP has begun initial discussions with a scientist in Cuba. Initially, laboratories and analytical capabilities will be compared first and interest in joining with NADP will then be explored. Finally, in Asia, NADP is continuing its advisory role on mercury monitoring as the APMMN advances.

Importance of NADP International Sites

Why is it important for NADP to have international sites? Here are some primary reasons:

For further reading of early NADP and Environment and Climate Change Canada measurements and cooperation, please see:

Sirois, A., Vet, R., and Lamb, D., 2000. A comparison of the precipitation chemistry measurements obtained by the CAPMoN and NADP/NTN networks. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 62(3), 273-303.

Highlight: Dr. Daniel Wildcat – Keynote Speaker for the Fall NADP Meeting

Figure 6: Dr. Wildcat (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)

Dr. Daniel Wildcat (Figure 6), a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, is a faculty member in the School of American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS, where he has taught since 1986. He is co-founder of the non-profit Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Center, established in partnership with Kansas State University’s Hazardous Substance Research Center with funds from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. HERS is an environmental research center guided by American Indian and Alaska Native traditional knowledge and wisdom which facilitates: 1) technology transfer to tribal governments and Native communities, 2) delivery of accurate environmental information to Native Sovereign Nations, and 3) research opportunities to tribal college faculty and students throughout the United States. A staunch advocate of tribal colleges and universities, Wildcat emphasizes the significant contributions which Indian colleges and universities make to academia and society.

After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Wildcat attended the University of Kansas where he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in sociology. His interdisciplinary Ph.D. in public administration and social science, from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, provides the basis for his profound interest in the social impacts of climate change. Some of Dr. Wildcat’s recent activities have centered on forming the American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group, a tribal college-centered network of individuals and organizations working issues associated with climate change.

A charismatic orator, Dr. Wildcat has been invited to speak about American Indian worldviews at Goddard Space Flight Center, National Museum of the American Indian, Harvard Medical School, Creighton University, University of Kansas Medical School, Kansas State University, University of California (Riverside) and many other institutions of higher education. Dr. Wildcat frequently speaks to community groups and organizations on cultural diversity and the role of Native science in the modern world. In 1992, Dr. Wildcat was honored with the Heart Peace Award by a Kansas City organization, The Future Is Now, for his efforts to promote world peace and cultural diversity.

Dr. Wildcat is a protégé of the late Vine Deloria, Jr., with whom he co-authored the book Power and Place: Indian Education in America. His other books include Destroying Dogma: Vine Deloria’s Legacy on Intellectual America, with Steve Pavlik, and Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge, which suggests that global climate change issues will require the exercise of indigenous ingenuity (i.e., indigenuity) and wisdom if humankind is to reduce and repair anthropogenic ecological damage.

Thank you to Scott Weir for contributing this content.

2016 Scientific Symposium is One Month Away!

The 2016 Annual Meeting and Scientific Symposium is taking place in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the La Fonda On the Plaza hotel from October 31-November 4, 2016. The theme of the 39th annual meeting is “Deposition: What Does the Future Hold?”. Highlights of this meeting include 2.5 days of oral presentations, a keynote address from Dr. Daniel Wildcat (see story above), a poster session and reception on Wednesday evening, and an optional field trip on Friday afternoon to an NADP, IMPROVE, and State of New Mexico monitoring sites at Bandelier National Monument

Hotel block

If you are attending the meeting and have not reserved your room yet, the room block will expire on Friday, September 30th, so please reserve your room today!

Agenda

The meeting agenda is now available on the NADP fall meeting website! The week will start with committee meetings on Monday and Tuesday (October 31st and November 1st), and the conference will kick off on Wednesday, November 2nd. Sessions on the agenda include critical loads of atmospheric deposition, fire risk, and ecosystem change, urban atmospheric chemistry and deposition, influences of trends and climate change on critical loads, and much more!

Santa Fe Information

There is much to do and see in the unique and beautiful city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Whether its visiting art museums, hiking or biking in the mountains, shopping, or enjoying the wonderful cuisine, visit the official travel site to enrich your trip to Santa Fe!

Employment Opportunity

Interested in working for the NADP? The program has an opening for an Assistant Site Liaison at our offices on the University of Illinois campus. For more information or to apply, please see the Job Description.

Recent Publications

A listing of recent journal publications that have used NADP data (the networks used are listed in bold next to the DOI). A publicly available online database that lists citations using NADP data is accessible at: http://nadp.isws.illinois.edu/lib/bibliography.aspx.

Butler, T., Vermeylen, F., Lehmann, C. M., Likens, G. E., and Puchalski, M., 2016. Increasing ammonia concentration trends in large regions of the USA derived from the NADP/ AMoN network. Atmospheric Environment, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.06.033 AMoN

Castro, M. S., and Moore, C. W., 2016. Importance of Gaseous Elemental Mercury Fluxes in Western Maryland. Atmosphere. 7(9), 110. doi:10.3390/atmos7090110 MDN, AMNet

Clow, D. W., Williams, M. W., and Schuster, P. F., 2016. Increasing aeolian dust deposition to snowpacks in the Rocky Mountains inferred from snowpack, wet deposition, and aerosol chemistry. Atmospheric Environment, 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.076 NTN

Cohen, M. D., Draxler, R. R., Artz, R. S., Blanchard, P., Gustin, M. S., Han, Y. J., ... and Loughner, C. P., 2016. Modeling the global atmospheric transport and deposition of mercury to the Great Lakes. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 4(1), 000118. doi: 10.12952;
doi:10.12952/journal.elementa.000118 MDN

Driscoll, C. T., Driscoll, K. M., Fakhraei, H., and Civerolo, K., 2016. Long-term temporal trends and spatial patterns in the acid-base chemistry of lakes in the Adirondack region of New York in response to decreases in acidic deposition. Atmospheric Environment, 1-10.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.08.034 NTN

Holmes, Christopher D., Nishanth P. Krishnamurthy, Jane M. Caffrey, William M. Landing, Eric S. Edgerton, Kenneth R. Knapp, and Udaysankar S. Nair, 2016. Thunderstorms increase mercury wet deposition. Environmental Science & Technology, 50 (17), pp 9343−9350
doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b02586 MDN

Iavorivska, L., Elizabeth W. Boyer, David R. DeWalle, 2016. Atmospheric deposition of organic carbon via precipitation. Atmospheric Environment, 1-11.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.06.006 NTN

McConnell, J., Shenton, H., III, and Mertz, D., 2016. Performance of Uncoated Weathering Steel Bridge Inventories: Methodology and Gulf Coast Region Evaluation. J. Bridge Eng, 04016087.
doi:10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000948 NTN

Short, M.A., P. de Caritat, and D.C. McPhail., 2016. Continental-scale variation in chloride/bromide ratios of wet deposition, Sci Total Environment, in press.
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.08.161 NTN

Smith, Kenneth R., Justin M. Mathias, Brenden E. McNeil, William T. Peterjohn, and Richard B. Thomas, 2016. Site-level importance of broadleaf deciduous trees outweighs the legacy of high nitrogen (N) deposition on ecosystem N status of Central Appalachian red spruce forests. Plant and Soil, 1-14.
doi:10.1007/s11104-016-2940-z NTN