Can sulfate fluxes in forest canopy throughfall be used to estimate atmospheric sulfur deposition? - A summary of recent results

Conference · Mon Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:930869

Lindberg, Steven Eric ^[1]; Cape, J N ^[2]; Garten, Jr, Charles T ^[1]; Ivens, W ^[3]

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1. ORNL
2. Institute of Terrestrial Ecology
3. University of Utrecht

The flux of sulfate is forest throughfall and stemflow (the sum of which is designated here as TF) may be an indicator of the atmospheric deposition of S, particularly if foliar leaching of internal plant S is small relative to washoff of deposition. Extensive data from 13 forests indicate that annual sulfate fluxes in TF and in atmospheric deposition are very similar, and recent studies with {sup 35}S tracers indicate that leaching is only a few percent of total TF. However, some short-term deposition/TF comparisons show large differences, and there remain questions about interpretation of tracer results. Considering the data, we conclude that TF may be used under some conditions to estimate deposition within acceptable uncertainty limits, but that some assumptions need further testing. If TF does reflect deposition, these data suggest that commonly used methods and models seriously underestimate total S deposition at some sites.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 930869
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CANOPIES
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
FORESTS
SULFATES
SULFUR
TESTING
THROUGHFALL