Chapter 14
Atmospheric Chemical Loadings
in the High Mountain: Current Forcing
and Legacy Pollution
Lluís Camarero
Abstract Human emissions have changed the chemistry of atmosphere. Potentially
toxic chemicals have been spread, and the global cycles of some key elements have
been disrupted. Because enhanced atmospheric precipitation and cold trapping
caused by elevation, high mountain ecosystems are considered as regional convergence areas of atmospheric pollutants. In this chapter, research on surface waters
acidification, pollution by trace elements, and atmospheric nutrient inputs in the
Pyrenees is reviewed. Pyrenean lakes have experienced only a moderate acidification, due partly to an also moderate acid load and partly to the neutralising cations
carried by dust. Presently, declining concentrations of sulphate in lakes indicate that
recovery is proceeding. Pollution by trace elements dates more than two millennia
back. The primary accumulation sites are the sediments of lakes. Soils also hold an
important burden, and there is evidence that some elements are being currently
remobilised. This is causing a delayed pollution, despite deposition of several trace
metals is declining. The emissions of artificial reactive nitrogen have caused
increased deposition on the Pyrenean catchments, which are thus nitrogen saturated.
A parallel increase of phosphorus deposition has occurred, likely caused by climatic
reasons. The combined effect of both seems to be an enhanced uptake of nitrogen
by phytoplankton causing a lower nitrogen concentration in lakes and a possible
shift from phosphorus-to-nitrogen limitation of phytoplankton growth, as well as an
incipient eutrophication. All these are examples of impacts in remote natural areas
that require a global strategy of conservation beyond the boundaries of the
ecosystems affected.
Keywords Atmospheric pollutants Á Global biogeochemical cycles Á
Acidification Á Trace elements Á Legacy pollution Á Airborne nutrients
L. Camarero (&)
Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, Accés Cala Sant Francesc 14, 17300 Blanes,
Girona, Spain
e-mail: camarero@ceab.csic.es
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Catalan et al. (eds.), High Mountain Conservation in a Changing World,
Advances in Global Change Research 62, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55982-7_14
325
Atmospheric Chemical Loadings
in the High Mountain: Current Forcing
and Legacy Pollution
Lluís Camarero
Abstract Human emissions have changed the chemistry of atmosphere. Potentially
toxic chemicals have been spread, and the global cycles of some key elements have
been disrupted. Because enhanced atmospheric precipitation and cold trapping
caused by elevation, high mountain ecosystems are considered as regional convergence areas of atmospheric pollutants. In this chapter, research on surface waters
acidification, pollution by trace elements, and atmospheric nutrient inputs in the
Pyrenees is reviewed. Pyrenean lakes have experienced only a moderate acidification, due partly to an also moderate acid load and partly to the neutralising cations
carried by dust. Presently, declining concentrations of sulphate in lakes indicate that
recovery is proceeding. Pollution by trace elements dates more than two millennia
back. The primary accumulation sites are the sediments of lakes. Soils also hold an
important burden, and there is evidence that some elements are being currently
remobilised. This is causing a delayed pollution, despite deposition of several trace
metals is declining. The emissions of artificial reactive nitrogen have caused
increased deposition on the Pyrenean catchments, which are thus nitrogen saturated.
A parallel increase of phosphorus deposition has occurred, likely caused by climatic
reasons. The combined effect of both seems to be an enhanced uptake of nitrogen
by phytoplankton causing a lower nitrogen concentration in lakes and a possible
shift from phosphorus-to-nitrogen limitation of phytoplankton growth, as well as an
incipient eutrophication. All these are examples of impacts in remote natural areas
that require a global strategy of conservation beyond the boundaries of the
ecosystems affected.
Keywords Atmospheric pollutants Á Global biogeochemical cycles Á
Acidification Á Trace elements Á Legacy pollution Á Airborne nutrients
L. Camarero (&)
Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, Accés Cala Sant Francesc 14, 17300 Blanes,
Girona, Spain
e-mail: camarero@ceab.csic.es
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Catalan et al. (eds.), High Mountain Conservation in a Changing World,
Advances in Global Change Research 62, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55982-7_14
325