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Trace Metal Budgets for Forested Catchments in Europe—Pb, Cd, Hg, Cu and Zn

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution volume 224, Article number: 1502 (2013) Cite this article

Abstract

Input/output budgets for cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) in the years 1997–2011 were monitored and determined for 14 small forest-covered catchments across Europe as part of the Integrated Monitoring program on the effects of long-range pollutants on ecosystems. Metal inputs were considered to derive from bulk deposition, throughfall and litterfall. Outputs were estimated from run-off values. Litterfall plus throughfall was taken as a measure of the total deposition of Pb and Hg (wet + dry) on the basis of evidence suggesting that, for these metals, internal circulation is negligible. The same is not true for Cd. Excluding a few sites with high discharge, between 74 and 94 % of the input Pb was retained within the catchments; significant Cd retention was also observed. High losses of Pb (>1.4 mg m−2 year−1) and Cd (>0.15 mg m−2 year−1) were observed in two mountainous Central European sites with high water discharge. All other sites had outputs below or equal to 0.36 and 0.06 mg m−2 year−1, respectively, for the two metals. Almost complete retention of Hg, 86–99 % of input, was reported in the Swedish sites. These high levels of metal retention were maintained even in the face of recent dramatic reductions in pollutant loads.

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Affiliations

  1. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    Lage Bringmark & Lars Lundin

  2. Lithuanian University of Agriculture, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Algirdas Augustaitis

  3. Bavarian Forest National Park Authority, Grafenau, Germany

    Burkhard Beudert

  4. Federal Environment Agency, Langen, Germany

    Helga Dieffenbach-Fries

  5. Federal Environment Agency, Vienna, Austria

    Thomas Dirnböck & Maria-Theresia Grabner

  6. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK

    Mike Hutchins

  7. Czech Geological Survey, Prague, Czech Republic

    Pavel Kram

  8. Latvian Environment, Geological and Meteorological Agency, Riga, Latvia

    Iraida Lyulko

  9. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Tuija Ruoho-Airola

  10. Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Kosetice, Czech Republic

    Milan Vana

Authors
  1. Lage Bringmark
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  2. Lars Lundin
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  3. Algirdas Augustaitis
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  4. Burkhard Beudert
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  5. Helga Dieffenbach-Fries
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  6. Thomas Dirnböck
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  7. Maria-Theresia Grabner
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  8. Mike Hutchins
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  9. Pavel Kram
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  10. Iraida Lyulko
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  11. Tuija Ruoho-Airola
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  12. Milan Vana
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Correspondence to Lage Bringmark.

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Bringmark, L., Lundin, L., Augustaitis, A. et al. Trace Metal Budgets for Forested Catchments in Europe—Pb, Cd, Hg, Cu and Zn. Water Air Soil Pollut 224, 1502 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1502-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1502-8

Keywords

  • Lead
  • Cadmium
  • Mercury
  • Forested catchment
  • Europe
  • Deposition
  • Retention