H. Casado et al., EVALUATION OF ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF WET DEPOSITION RECORDED IN THE SPANISH-BASQUE COUNTRY, Journal of environmental science and health. Part A: Environmental science and engineering, 30(4), 1995, pp. 695-712
Within the framework of the EPOCA programme (Estudios en el Pirineo Oc
cidental de la Contaminacion Acida), wet deposition of inorganic pollu
tants was measured at five rural sites in the Spanish Basque Country b
etween Dec 85 and Apr 91. Na+, Ca2+, SO4exc2-, and NH4+ ions were the
main species found in the rainwater samples. The average pH value rang
ed between 4.9 and 5.6 depending on the site. Relationship between the
ionic concentrations and the back-trajectories showed that trajectori
es coming from Europe resulted in the highest NO3-, SO4exc2- and H+ co
ncentrations. NO3- and H+ incursion in the study area by a long-range-
transport phenomenon was estimated in 20 mu eq l(-1) for each ion. By
means of both the one-way analysis of variance and the range tests for
the wet deposition, two of the sites resulted to be able to represent
both qualitatively and quantitatively the wet deposition collected at
all sites.