E&S recently developed a white paper documenting an exploratory analysis of drivers of tree growth and survival responses to climate-related variables and aspects of air pollution, among other drivers, with colleagues at EPA and partner Universities. The study utilized US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data for more than 1,000,000 individual trees; with …

E&S staff developed a comprehensive assessment of the expected risk to various biological endpoints within all National Forests and wilderness areas of the Intermountain Region. Risk was characterized with critical loads of atmospheric N deposition to protect against species levels of effects on aquatic biota, lichen communities, and individual tree species. Substantial portions of the …

E&S led research describing a modeling study focused on sustainable timber harvesting within the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) has been completed. The VSD+ model was used to evaluate the effects of timber harvesting and historical impacts from acidic deposition on soil nutrient supply at two sites. Results showed that ridgetop locations, and likely other …

A scientific manuscript prepared by E&S staff and colleagues from the State University of New York, Syracuse and the U.S. Geological Survey was recently accepted by the journal Plant and Soil. This publication is titled “Plant Richness and Composition in Hardwood Forest Understories Varies Along an Acidic Deposition and Soil-Chemical Gradient in the Northeastern United …

A scientific journal article written by E&S staff and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey and Syracuse University has recently been accepted for publication by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. The paper, “Probabilistic relations between acid-base chemistry and fish assemblages in streams of the western Adirondack Mountains, New York, USA” (Baldigo et …

E&S recently updated the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system previously developed for the U.S. Forest Service (FS) by E&S and FS staff. Results of model scenarios showed that many southern Appalachian Mountain streams exhibited modest recovery of acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), but soil base saturation is not expected to recover to levels approaching pre-industrial …

E&S scientists Todd McDonnell and Timothy Sullivan will attend the fall 2018 conference of the National Acid Deposition Program (NADP) in Albany, NY in early November. Drs. McDonnell and Sullivan are heavily involved in activities of the NADP Critical Loads Science Committee that synthesizes and projects effects of atmospheric sulfur and nitrogen air pollution  on …