The role of the atmosphere in coastal ecosystem decline - Future research directions

Current assessments of the role of atmospheric deposition in the declining health of aquatic ecosystems indicate that the atmosphere could account for as much as 30% to 40% of total external nitrogen loading to some coastal w aters. All such assessments are uncertain and need to be refined. To focus attention on the problem as it affects eastern North American coastal water s, a series of interdisciplinary workshops has been conducted, bringing tog ether scientists and regulators. The series started with a meeting at Mt. W ashington, Maryland in 1994, with subsequent meetings at Warrenton, Virgini a in 1995, and Raleigh, North Carolina in 1997. Although the workshops cons idered all nitrogen species, toxic chemicals, trace metals, precipitation c hemistry, airborne aerosols, and supporting meteorological investigation, m ost of the discussion centered around the issue of nitrogen-species deposit ion. It was concluded that work is urgently needed to establish integrated monitoring stations to provide high quality deposition and watershed retent ion data within the catchment area, to take spatial and temporal variabilit y into account in atmospheric deposition models, to improve biogeochemical watershed models, especially from the perspective of biological utilization and cycling of deposited materials, to refine emissions inventories and pr ojections on which scenario investigations are based, to enhance all ongoin g data collection efforts, especially those related to specific process stu dies, and to improve spatial resolution by increasing the number of deposit ion measurement sites. An overall conclusion was that there must be a stron g effort to include considerations of air pollution and atmospheric deposit ion in the water quality regulatory process. It was repeatedly emphasized t hat any new efforts should build on existing programs rather than risk new starts that compete with ongoing and already productive work.