![]() |
ИСТИНА |
Войти в систему Регистрация |
ИПМех РАН |
||
NE Norway receives the largest amounts of heavy metal and SO2 deposition in the country, due to high emissions from NW Russia. Dominating wind directions contribute, however, to relatively little deposition on the Norwegian side, whereas more is deposited north of the smelters in Russia, especially in closer surroundings. In spite of this, deposition of heavy metals to bryophyte vegetation (mosses) in the Norwegian-Finnish-Russian border-region has increased quite dramatically, during the past 25 years in contrast to declining trends in the rest of the country during the same period. Large areas close the metal smelters in NW Russia are heavily damaged on a landscape-wide scale, including complete devastation of soil and vegetation. On the Norwegian side of the border such severe effects have not yet been found. The effects of high deposition of SO2 and heavy metals in the Norwegian-Finnish-Russian border region have been monitored the past two decades in the Pasvik program. Their report (2008) found not very alarming results regarding plants, berries, soil and groundwater, but concluded also that knowledge was incomplete at that time. In addition, climate change adds additional interacting forces that will influence turnover rates, threshold values for ecosystem buffer capacities etc. in so far unknown ways. Based on this background, a workshop will be organized with the aims to sum up the conclusions from previous studies and to identify gaps of knowledge.