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Contemporary rates of atmospheric inorganic nitrogen (N) deposition to Latin American cities
Citation:
Ponette-González, A., H. Lewis, B. Henderson, G. Piñeiro, D. Carnelos, AND D. Schwede. Contemporary rates of atmospheric inorganic nitrogen (N) deposition to Latin American cities. Technical Meeting on Nitrogen and Isotopes in Atmospheric Waters, Vienna, AUSTRIA, September 27 - 29, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Vast areas of South America, and particularly urban areas, remain under-sampled for atmospheric deposition. Additionally, urban areas represent an important deposition "hotspot" and greater than 80% of Latin America's population resides in urban areas. Existing monitors measure only wet deposition and dry deposition can be an important contributor to total deposition. This study represents one of the first attempts to characterize deposition in urban areas in Latin America.
Description:
Recent efforts to develop and evaluate regional and global chemical transport models reveal major gaps in atmospheric deposition monitoring. First, in contrast to northern North America, western Europe, and Asia, vast land areas in Latin America, Africa, and Australia remain under-sampled. Organized networks that monitor atmospheric deposition in these regions are few in number or nonexistent. Second, urban areas, important deposition ‘hotspots’, less well represented in atmospheric deposition monitoring networks. Third, many monitoring networks estimate only wet deposition, even though dry deposition can comprise a significant fraction of the total material deposited to ecosystems, especially in arid environments and in cities. This study used the GEOS-Chem model to simulate deposition in South America. Model values are compared with available observed wet deposition data and the spatial patterns of observed and modeled deposition were generally consistent. The model was able to provide additional spatial coverage of deposition as well as estimates of dry deposition.
