Assessing Impacts of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition on New Jersey Forests 2002-2003: Final Report Year 1
Date
2003-11
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Publisher
Trenton, N.J. : New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science, Research and Technology
Abstract
The project scope was conceptualized at an inter-programmatic meeting within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection including representation by the Divisions of Science Research and Technology, Forestry, Air, Watershed Management and
Endangered Species. A consensus was reached that a suite of bioindicators would prove critical in satisfying State management goals to enhance air and water quality; to restore
ecosystems, sustain land and natural resource communities; as well as to preserve biodiversity in the state. The immediate goal was to establish unique baseline terrestrial communities of known structure in the Pinelands Ecoregion of New Jersey, then to
evaluate the influence of potential environment stressors. Of particular interest were air deposited nitrogen and its measurable biological effects on forest ecosystems for long
term trends-assessment. Methods are needed to benchmark nitrogen status in the Pinelands, and other air sheds in New Jersey, to track deposition trends and effects over time; that is, to develop a means to measure Nitrogen dry deposition effects (i.e., using bioindicators such as mycorrhizal fungi). Changes in macro-fungal species composition and abundance have been used in other parts of the world as biological indicators for terrestrial wooded ecosystems.
Description
Keywords
Atmospheric nitrogen compounds - Environmental aspects - New Jersey - Pine Barrens, Atmospheric deposition - Environmental aspects - New Jersey - Pine Barrens, New Jersey - Pine Barrens