Abstract
We analyzed 13 years of hourly measurements of SO2, NOx, and O3, at forest ecosystem research sites in SE Germany. A quasi-continuous data record was obtained by combining data sets from two locations. Before interpreting trends in the combined data set, we analyzed if the change of location introduced a systematic bias. We employed autocorrelation functions, Hurst statistics, complexity analysis, and recurrence quantification and found that the partial data sets exhibited no indication of the presence of any bias. For SO2, we also compared the data from the forest sites with data obtained in nearby cities and also found no indications for any systematic effects. Applying nonparametric trend statistics we found a significant decrease of the SO2. Most of the observed decrease is due to the reductions of SO2 emissions in eastern Germany, but reductions in western Germany and the Czech Republic also played important roles. For O3, we observed a significant increase, the causes of which are unclear from our data alone. No trend was identified for NOx.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avila, A. (1996): Time trends in the precipitation chemistry at a mountain site in northeastern Spain for the period 1983–1994. Atmos. Environ. 30, 1363–1373
Bates, J.E. andShephard, H.K. (1993): Measuring complexity sing information fluctuations. Physics Letters A 172, 416–425
Bar-Yam, Y. (1997): Dynamics of Complex Systems. Addison-Wesley, Reading
Eckmann, J.P., Kamphorst, S.O. andRuelle, D. (1987): Recurrence plots of dynamical systems. Europhysics Letters 4, 973–979
EMEP MSC-W Report 1/97 (1997): Emissions, dispersion and trends of acidifying and eutrophying agents. Norw. Met. Inst., PO-Box 43-Blindern, 0313 Oslo 3, Norway
Gilbert, R. 1987. Statistical Methods for Environmental Pollution Monitoring. Van Nostrand Reinhold. Melbourne
Fuhrer, J., Skärby, L. andAshmore, M.R. (1997) Critical Levels for ozone effects on vegetation in Europe. Environ. Pollut. 97, 91–106
Hollander, M., andWolfe, D.A. 1973. Nonparametric Statistical Methods. John Wiley & Sons. New York
Lange, H., Newig, J. andWolf, F. (1998): Comparison of complexity measures for time series from ecosystem research. Bayreuther Forum Ökologie 52, 99–116
Lange, H. (1999): Are Ecosystems Dynamical Systems? International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems 3, 169–186
Montanari, A., Rosso, R., andTaqqu, M.S. (1997): Fractionally differenced ARIMA models applied to hydrologic time series: Identification, estimation, and simulation. Water Resources Research 33, 1035–1044
Rodríguez-Iturbe, I. andRinaldo, A. (1997): Fractal River Basins. Cambridge University Press.
Schulze, E.-D., Lange, O.L., and Oren, R. (Eds.) 1989. Forest Decline and Air Pollution. Ecological Studies 77, 475 pp
Umweltbundesamt, (Ed.), 1997. Daten zur Umwelt. Erich Schmidt Verlag. Berlin
Wackerbauer, R., Witt, A., Atmanspacher, H., Kurths, J., andScheingraber, H. (1994): A Comparative Classification of Complexity Measures. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 4, 133–173
Zbilut, J.P., Giuliani, A., andWebber Jr.,C.L. (1998): Recurrence quantification analysis and principal components in the detection of short complex signals. Physics Letters A 237, 131–135
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klemm, O., Lange, H. Trends of air pollution in the Fichtelgebirge Mountains, Bavaria. Environ. Sci. & Pollut. Res. 6, 193–199 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02987325
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02987325