Journal of Conference Abstracts

Effects of Air Pollution Load on Condition of Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris L.) Stands in the Karelian Isthmus,
N.-W. Russia, and Southeastern Finland

Ilari Lumme¹ (Ilari.Lumme@metla.fi), Vladimir Arkhipov² (Fax: 7812-298 26 93),
Pekka Nöjd¹ (Pekka.Nojd@metla.fi) & Vasily Yarmishko³ (Fax: 7812-234 4512)

¹ The Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Centre, P.O. Box 18 FIN-01301 Vantaa, Finland.

² North-western Forest Management Enterprise, Koli Tomchaka 16, RU-196084 St. Petersburg, Russia.

³ The Russian Academy of Science, Komarov Botanical Institute, Popov 2, RU-197376 St. Petersburg, Russia.

Relatively clear decreasing wet deposition gradients of sulphur, base cations and nitrogen were detected in 50-100-year-old Scots pine stands along a survey line between the St. Petersburg region-N.-E. Estonia and southeastern Finland in 1992 (Fig. 1). The deposition obviously increased needle, fine root and soil leachate sulphur, calcium and nitrogen concentrations in the vicinity of St. Petersburg and in the southern part of southeastern Finland (Table 1). No significant changes in the soil cation exchange capacity or base saturation were found along the gradient line. The base cation deposition alleviated the acidifying effect of sulphur and nitrogen. The loads of sulphur and base cations decreased during 1993-1995. The decline of the deposition resulted in reduction of the foliar and soil leachate sulphur and calcium concentrations between 1992 and 1995. No long-term growth effects of the varying deposition load were detected in the Scots pine stands along the survey line.

Fig. 1. Mean sulphur and calcium deposition (mg m^-2 in canopy throughfall) during 1992-1995.

Table 1. Mean¹ S, N and Ca concentrations (mg/g dry weight) in the one-year-old Scots pine needles and fine roots and S concentrations of soil leachate (mg/l) along the gradient line.

¹Values marked with * are significantly (p<0.05) differnt from those with + within a sampling year, values indicate significant differences between years in the same sample stand in Anova and Tukey's HSD.