Estimates of critical loads and of acidity and nutrient nitrogen for mineral soils in Canada

The concept of “critical loads” refers to the threshold levels of pollutants or stressors that an ecosystem can tolerate without experiencing significant harm or degradation. When the input of these stressors exceeds the critical load (“exceedance”), the ecosystem may experience biological damage. Critical loads are particularly important for understanding how atmospheric deposition may impact ecological health and for informing policy decisions aimed at environmental protection and sustainability. In a special study, the steady-state Simple Mass Balance model was applied to terrestrial ecosystems across Canada to produce nation-wide maps of critical loads of acidity (represented by maps of maximum sulphur critical loads, CLmaxS; maximum nitrogen critical loads, CLmaxN; and minimum nitrogen critical loads, CLminN) and nutrient nitrogen (CLnutN). The maps are provided on a 250 m grid across all provinces and territories for natural and semi-natural terrestrial ecosystems across Canada (excluding organic soils, agricultural areas, and the Hudson Plains ecozone).

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Title (French) Estimations des charges critiques ainsi que de l’acidité et de l’azote nutritif pour les sols minéraux au Canada
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Contact Person {"en": "Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch/Air Quality Research Division, , natchem@ec.gc.ca", "fr": "Gouvernement du Canada; Environnement et Changement climatique Canada; Direction générale des sciences et de la technologie/Division de la recherche en qualité de l'air, , natchem@ec.gc.ca"}
Contact Email enviroinfo@ec.gc.ca
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Open Canada Date Published 2024-11-01 04:00:00
Open Canada Date Modified 2024-10-23 04:00:00
Open Canada Subject ["nature_and_environment"]
Open Canada Keywords {"en": ["Environmental impact assessment", "Air quality"], "fr": ["Évaluation environnementale", "Qualité de l'air"]}
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