Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 12 2 2008 10.5194/hess-12-333-2008 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/333/2008/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/333/2008/hess-12-333-2008.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/333/2008/hess-12-333-2008.pdf 333 335 2008-03-05 Role of climate change in recovery of acidified surface waters R. F. Wright richard.wright@niva.no P. J. Dillon Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadallèen 21, 0349 Oslo, Norway Trent University, K9J 7B8 Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Surface waters in Europe and North America have begun to recover in response to decreases in emissions of acidifying pollutants to the atmosphere. Variations in climate influence chemical and biological recovery. Part of the EU project Eurolimpacs (Integrated project to evaluate the impacts of global change on European freshwater ecosystems) focuses on the interactive effects of acid deposition and climate on freshwater ecosystems. This special issue of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences is devoted to this topic, and consists of studies conducted in 8 countries on aspects regarding episodes, nitrate, dissolved organic carbon, recovery and biological effects. Aherne, J.: The impacts of future climate change and sulphur emission reductions on acidification recovery at Plastic Lake, Ontario, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. de Wit, H. A., Hindar, A., and Hole, L.: Winter climate affects long-term trends in stream water nitrate in acid-sensitive catchments in southern Norway, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Dillon, P. J., Skjelkvåle, B. L., Somers, K. M., and Tørseth, K.: Coherent response of sulphate concentrations in Norwegian lakes: relationships with sulphur deposition and climatic indices, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 7, 596–608, 2003a. Dillon, P. J., Somers, K. M., Findeis, J., and Eimers, M. C.: Coherent response of lakes in Ontario, Canada to reductions in sulphur deposition: the effects of climate on sulphate concentrations, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 7, 583–595, 2003b. Evans, C., Reynolds, B., Hinton, C., Hughes, S., Norris, D., Grant, G., and Williams, B.: Effects of decreasing acid deposition and climate change on acid extremes in an upland stream, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Evans, C. D., Cullen, J., Alewell, C., Kopácek, J., Marchetto, A., Moldan, F., Prechtel, A., Rogora, M., Vesel\'y, J., and Wright, R. F.: Recovery from acidification in European surface waters, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 5, 283–298, 2001. Evans, C. D., Monteith, D. T., and Cooper, D. M.: Long-term increases in surface water dissolved organic carbon: Observations, possible causes and environmental impacts, Environ. Pollut., 137, 55–71, 2005. Futter, M., Starr, M., Forsius, M., and Holmberg, M.: Modelling the effects of climate on long-term patterns of dissolved organic carbon concentrations in the surface waters of a boreal catchment, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Hardekopf, D., Horecky, J., and Kopacek, J.: Predicting long-term recovery of a strongly acidified stream using MAGIC and climate models (Litavka, Czech Republic), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Hesthagen, T., Forseth, T., Saksgård, R., Berger, H. M., and Larsen, B. M.: Recovery of young Brown Trout in some acidified streams in Southwestern and Western Norway, Water Air Soil Poll., 130, 1355–1360, 2001. Hindar, A., Henriksen, A., Kaste, Ø., and Tørseth, K.: Extreme acidification in small catchments in southwestern Norway associated with a sea salt episode, Water Air Soil Poll., 85, 547–552, 1995. Hole, L., de Wit, H., and Aas, W.: Influence of summer and winter climate variability on nitrogen wet deposition in Norway, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Holt, C. and Yan, N. D.: Recovery of crustacean zooplankton communities from acidification in Killarney Park, Ontario, 1971–2000: pH 6 as a recovery goal, Ambio, 32, 203–207, 2003. Jeffries, D. S., Clair, T. A., Couture, S., Dillon, P. J., Dupont, J., Keller, W., McNicol, D. K., Turner, M. A., and Weeber, R.: Assessing the Recovery of Lakes in Southeastern Canada from the Effects of Acid Deposition, Ambio, 32, 176–182, 2003. Kroglund, F., Rosseland, B. O., Teigen, H. C., Salbu, B., Kristensen, T., and Finstad, B.: Water quality limits for Atlantic salmon (\textitSalmo salar L.) exposed to short term reductions in pH and increased aluminum simulating episodes, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Laudon, H.: Recovery from episodic acidification delayed by drought and high sea salt deposition, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Laudon, H. and Buffam, I.: Impact of changing DOC concentrations on the potential distribution of acid sensitive biota in a boreal stream network, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Lydersen, E., Aanes, K. J., Andersen, S., Andersen, T., Brettum, P., Bǽkken, T., Lien, L., Lindstrøm, E. A., Løvik, J. E., Mjelde, M., Oredalen, T. J., Solheim, A. L., Romstad, R., and Wright, R. F.: Ecosystem effects of thermal manipulation of a whole lake, Lake Breisjøen, southern Norway (THERMOS project), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Posch, M., Aherne, J., Forsius, M., Fronzek, S., and Veijalainen, N.: Modelling the impacts of European emission and climate change scenarios on acid-sensitive catchments in Finland, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Rogora, M., Arese, C., Balestrini, R., and Marchetto, A.: Climate control on sulphate and nitrate concentrations in alpine streams of Northern Italy along a nitrogen saturation gradient, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Rzycho\'n, D. and Worsztynowicz, A.: What affects the nitrogen retention in Tatra Mountains lakes' catchments in Poland?, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Stoddard, J. L.: Long-Term Changes in Watershed Retention of Nitrogen: its causes and aquatic consequences, 223–284, in: Environmental Chemistry of Lakes and Reservoirs, edited by: Baker, L. A., American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1994. Stoddard, J. L., Jeffries, D. S., Lükewille, A., Clair, T. A., Dillon, P. J., Driscoll, C. T., Forsius, M., Johannessen, M., Kahl, J. S., Kellogg, J. H., Kemp, A., Mannio, J., Monteith, D., Murdoch, P. S., Patrick, S., Rebsdorf, A., Skjelkvåle, B. L., Stainton, M. P., Traaen, T. S., van Dam, H., Webster, K. E., Wieting, J., and Wilander, A.: Regional trends in aquatic recovery from acidification in North America and Europe 1980–95, Nature, 401, 575–578, 1999. Tarrason, L., Fagerli, H., Klein, H., Simpson, D., Benedictow, A. C., Vestregn, V., Rigler, E., Emberson, L., Posch, M., and Spranger, T.: Transboundary Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground Level Ozone in Europe from 1990 to 2004 in support for the review of the Gothenburg Protocol, EMEP Status Report 1/2006, Meteorological Institute, Oslo, 2006. UNECE: available at: http://www.unece.org/env/lrtap/, last access: 27 February 2008, 2002. Vuorenmaa, J. and Forsius, M.: Recovery of acidified Finnish lakes: trends, patterns and dependence of catchment characteristics, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Wright, R. F.: The decreasing importance of acidification episodes with recovery from acidification: an analysis of the 30-year record from Birkenes, Norway, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 12, this special issue, 2008. Wright, R. F., Larssen, T., Camarero, L., Cosby, B. J., Ferrier, R. C., Helliwell, R. C., Forsius, M., Jenkins, A., Kopácek, J., Majer, V., Moldan, F., Posch, M., Rogora, M., and Schöpp, W.: Recovery of acidified European surface waters, Environ. Sci. Technol., 39, 64A–72A, 2005.