IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

For 20 years, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency together with the MISTRA research foundation have funded five air pollution research programmes with focus on producing knowledge that supports policy and emission control in national and international arenas. The research has been multidisciplinary and has included research on emissions, atmospheric transport and transformation processes, human health effects, ecosystem effects, and emission control strategies. Research has also been conducted on the interaction between air pollution and climate change.

Over these years, the link between the research programmes and the development of emission control strategies and policies in Sweden, the EU, and the UNECE Air Convention has been of high importance. This report presents how the research programmes have created societal benefits through support for the development of air pollution policies and emission control measures. The report also identifies future research needs to ensure continued progress towards even better air quality for future generations.

Se själva rapporten för sammanfattningen

The dynamic integrated ecosystem model ForSAFE-Veg was applied at the intensively monitored experimental catchment Gårdsjön, with the aim to investigate the performance of the model and the feasibility of using the composition of the ground vegetation community as an indicator of potential change due to N deposition. The quality, long term, and integrity of the measured data provided an ideal testing opportunity for evaluating the performance of the model, which proved satisfactory. The study shows that it is feasible to use the composition of the ground vegetation community as a biological indicator of ecosystem change. Yet, to be used in estimating critical loads of nitrogen (N) deposition, the biological indicator has to be simplified into a single-dimensional variable referred to as the average yearly exceedance (of change in the composition of the ground vegetation). The study shows that setting conditions to protect the dominant segment of the plant community, and thereby protecting ecosystem services, will also result in protecting the marginal plants proportion at the site. However, the choice of the segment of the plant community to be protected and the acceptable level of change remain bound to social preferences

The dynamic integrated ecosystem model ForSAFE-Veg was applied at the intensively monitored experimental catchment Gårdsjön, with the aim to investigate the performance of the model and the feasibility of using the composition of the ground vegetation community as an indicator of potential change due to N deposition. The quality, long term, and integrity of the measured data provided an ideal testing opportunity for evaluating the performance of the model, which proved satisfactory. The study shows that it is feasible to use the composition of the ground vegetation community as a biological indicator of ecosystem change. Yet, to be used in estimating critical loads of nitrogen (N) deposition, the biological indicator has to be simplified into a single-dimensional variable referred to as the average yearly exceedance (of change in the composition of the ground vegetation). The study shows that setting conditions to protect the dominant segment of the plant community, and thereby protecting ecosystem services, will also result in protecting the marginal plants proportion at the site. However, the choice of the segment of the plant community to be protected and the acceptable level of change remain bound to social preferences

Temporal trends for concentrations of mercury (Hg), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) were evaluated from year 2000–2020 in 20 (Hg), 23 (Pb) and 11 (Cd) watercourses in remote forest catchments in Europe. Decreasing trends were observed in 15% (Hg), 39% (Pb) and 45% (Cd) of the watercourses during the period of evaluation. Decreasing trends were mainly observed between 2000 and 2005 for Hg and between 2000 and 2015 for Pb and Cd. For the last five years of the studied time period (2015–2020), more watercourses showed significant increasing, rather than decreasing Hg, Pb and Cd trends.

This was interpreted as a legacy effect of metals still retained in catchment soils. The overall negative trends during the earlier part of the study period were likely driven by declining deposition of metals over Europe, especially for Pb and Cd. Other changes related to metal transport and chemistry may have contributed to the observed trends as well, including recovery from acidification and the ongoing browning of surface waters at northern latitudes. Here we found that organic carbon could explain the seasonal variation in Hg and Pb, but was not related the interannual trends. This study highlights the need for long-term monitoring and robust statistical methods that can detect multidirectional, long-term change in water chemistry.

Summary Base cation deposition represents a major input to forest nutrient pools and is an essential parameter for quantifying critical loads and its exceedances as well as predictions for the recovery of ecosystems from acidification. Lately, concern about removal of base cations from the forest in connection with intensive forest biomass harvesting has become a much discussed issue. It is essential to be able to measure or estimate the base cation deposition to forests with a reasonable accuracy. During the 1980s and 90s a great deal of work was performed in order to determine the input of base cation to forests whereas there has not been much new literature since the 1990s. A workshop was arranged November 21-22, 2012 in order to explore the latest developments and advancements within the area. In this report we summarize the workshop outcomes. The importance of combined methods for measuring or estimating BC deposition was emphasized. European-wide BC modelled maps seems feasible and was considered desirable. A division between different sources (ocean sea-salt spray, Saharan dust, European land born dust and anthropogenic emissions) was suggested. Continued cooperation on a European level should be promoted and different ways for this was discussed.

Stora arealer av Sveriges dikade skogsmark har diken som är eftersatta. Kunskapen om vilken effekt en dikesrensning har på ökad tillväxt samt dikenas vattenföring, vattenkvalité och bottenfauna är obefintlig. DiVa projektet (Dikesrensningens effekter på vattenekosystem) sattes i verket för att belysa effekterna av dikesrensning och öka kunskapen och processförståelsen kring effekterna på bottenfauna och vattenkemi. DiVa projektet har pågått sedan 2007 i två faser, 3 respektive 2 år. Två områden i Sverige valdes ut: Fagerheden utanför Piteå i Norrbottens län och Unnaryd i Jönköpings län i södra Sverige. I varje försöksområde utfördes dikesrensningen i två diken. Olika maskintyper användes i de två områden. Ett dike rensades med normala hänsynsåtgärder medan ett annat rensades under förhöjda hänsynsåtgärder. Ett dike lämnades orört som referens. Dikesrensningen med normal hänsyn innebar att en översilningsmark anlades nedströms den rensade sträckan, samt att nästan hela diket rensades, nerifrån och upp. Dikesrensningen med ökad hänsyn innebar, förutom översilningsmark nedströms dikena, även att mindre proppar och små slamfickor och/eller översilningsmarker längs diket skapades, samt att orensade partier lämnades. Efter mätningar i en inledande period på 1-2 år genomfördes dikesrensning och vattenkemin registrerades löpande under 1-2 år efter åtgärden, medan bottenfaunan inventerades på våren och hösten varje år.

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Ltd here report results of work within the Swedish part of the FUTMON project; "Further Development and Implementation of an EU-level Forest Monitoring System". Samples were collected at 3 Integrated Monitoring sites (Kindla, Gammtratten and Aneboda) and 8 forested plots, two in vicinity of each of the 4 Swedish IM sites (Asa Sandbäcken, Asa Ängavägen, Kindla Buskbäcken, Kindla Bohyttan, Gammtratten Balån Nord, Gammtratten Risbäcken, Gårdsjön F2 and Gårdsjön  F3). Sampling at the fourth Swedish IM site, Gårdsjön F1 IM was performed and analysed as well; however, as a part of IM and not of FUTMON. Sampling of throughfall, litterfall, runoff, air temperature and air humidity was performed during 2010. Quality control, evaluation and reporting of results have further been carried out. The throughfall deposition of sulphur-sulphate was highest at Asa Sandbäcken (3.5 kg ha-1 yr-1). The throughfall deposition of sea salt was highest at Gårdsjön because the close position to the North Sea. The deposition of total nitrogen (nitrate-nitrogen, ammoniumnitrogen, organic nitrogen) varied between 2.8 kg ha-1 yr-1 at Gammtratten to approximately 7 kg ha-1 yr-1 at Gårdsjön. These amounts are lower than observed during earlier years, e.g. for Gårdsjön.No large difference appeared between the concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen in runoff water at Gårdsjön F2 and F3. Nitrate-nitrogen was only observed in runoff water during the winter time. On the other hand, differences occurred between the two forest catchments for the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, total aluminium and dissolved organic carbon.The concentrations of total mercury varied between 1.4 and 14.4 ng l-1 and for methyl mercury between 0.06 och 4.1 ng l-1. The highest concentrations of both were measured at Asa Sandbäcken, Asa Ängavägen and Aneboda IM that are the most southern forests. The lowest concentrations were accordingly observed at the northern most forests, Gammtratten IM. The concentrations were higher during summer time and confirm earlier analyses between different seasons.The air humidity is often very high at Gårdsjön. This causes technical problems using Tiny Tag loggers which often show relative air humidity values above 100%. The logged air humidity data at Gårdsjön should therefore be evaluated with care. Temperature values measured using the same loggers are however reasonable and approximately alike for the two forest catchments at Gårdsjön (F2 and F3).This report is only available in Swedish.

In Europe, like in many temperate lowlands worldwide, forest has a long history of fragmentation and land use change. In many places, forest landscapes consist of patches of different quality, age, size and isolation, embedded in a more or less intensively managed agricultural matrix. As potential biodiversity islets, small forest patches (SFP) may deliver several crucial ecosystem services to human society, but they receive little attention compared to large, relatively intact forest patches. Beyond their role as a biodiversity reservoir, SFP provide important in situ services such as timber and wild food (game, edible plants and mushrooms) production. At the landscape scale, SFP may enhance the crop production via physical (obstacle against wind and floods) and biological (sources of pollinators and natural enemies) regulation, but may, on the other hand, also be involved in the spread of infectious diseases. Depending on their geographic location, SFP can also greatly influence the water cycle and contribute to supply high-quality water to agriculture and people.

Globally, SFP are important carbon sinks and are involved in nutrient cycles, thus play a role in climate change mitigation. Cultural services are more related to landscape values than to SFP per se, but the latter may contribute to the construction of community identity. We conclude that SFP, as local biodiversity hotspots in degraded landscapes, have the potential to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and may even be crucial for the ecological intensification of agroecosystems. There is thus an urgent need to increase our knowledge about the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services delivered by these SFP in agricultural landscapes.

Increasing attention is now given, nationally and internationally, to the importance of understanding and managing other global cycles of elements in addition to carbon, including nitrogen. Work on planetary boundaries has identified overloading the nitrogen cycle as one of the most critical problems. A particular challenge is that reactive nitrogen (Nr) is involved in a cascade of different environmental effects, from local air pollution to eutrophication, acidification and climate change. These problems are often managed by different and not always coordinated policies and instruments. Recent studies and projects, such as the European Nitrogen Assessment, and newly initiated projects by the OECD, have looked at how more coherent and integrated policies could be better targeted and more cost-effective. The Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) has established a Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN) to look scientifically at the whole cycle of reactive nitrogen, as a background for policy development.

The use of fertiliser in agriculture, together with NOx from fossil fuel combustion, is a major anthropogenic source of reactive nitrogen, and requires special attention and analysis; around two thirds or more of Nr from human sources is related to agriculture, from fertiliser, fixation by crop plants or feed imports.

This report builds on earlier work by the Nordic Council of Ministers on these issues, in particular TemaNord2015:570 “Nordic agriculture air and climate”, and is also a follow-up of TemaNord2013:558 “Agriculture and environment in the Nordic countries”.

The report provides an overview of main sources, pathways and impacts of reactive nitrogen in the Nordic countries, including knowledge gaps. It reviews ongoing national and international policy efforts to control reactive nitrogen, and looks at trends and developments, including results of control policies, in flows of reactive nitrogen in the Nordic countries.

On this basis the report suggests further work to close knowledge gaps, and recommends possible control strategies and policy instruments for reactive nitrogen, in order to design and implement better integrated, more effective and more cost-effective policies.

During the past twenty years, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) have introduced a range of measures to reduce losses of nitrogen (N) to air and to aquatic environment by leaching and runoff. However, the agricultural sector is still an important N source to the environment, and projections indicate relatively small emission reductions in the coming years. The four Nordic countries have different priorities and strategies regarding agricultural N flows and mitigation measures, and therefore they are facing different challenges and barriers. In Norway farm subsidies are used to encourage measures, but these are mainly focused on phosphorus (P). In contrast, Denmark targets N and uses control regulations to reduce losses. In Sweden and Finland, both voluntary actions combined with subsidies help to mitigate both N and P. The aim of this study was to compare the present situation pertaining to agricultural N in the Nordic countries as well as to provide recommendations for policy instruments to achieve cost effective abatement of reactive N from agriculture in the Nordic countries, and to provide guidance to other countries. To further reduce N losses from agriculture, the four countries will have to continue to take different routes. In particular, some countries will need new actions if 2020 and 2030 National Emissions Ceilings Directive (NECD) targets are to be met. Many options are possible, including voluntary action, regulation, taxation and subsidies, but the difficulty is finding the right balance between these policy options for each country. The governments in the Nordic countries should put more attention to the NECD and consult with relevant stakeholders, researchers and farmer's associations on which measures to prioritize to achieve these goals on time. It is important to pick remaining low hanging fruits through use of the most cost effective mitigation measures. We suggest that N application rate and its timing should be in accordance with the crop need and carrying capacity of environmental recipients. Also, the choice of application technology can further reduce the risk of N losses into air and waters. This may require more region-specific solutions and knowledge-based support with tailored information in combination with further targeted subsidies or regulations.

In this report, pool two ‘Materials & products in industry’ (MP) of the Swedish National Nitrogen Budget (NNB) is presented. The MP pool of NNB is one of the eight major pools defined by the Task Force of Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN) which together represent a total national nitrogen budget capturing all major flows of all forms of reactive nitrogen (Nr) within a country and across the country borders. The methodology to calculate NNB has been provided by the Expert Panel on Nitrogen Budgets (EPNB) in the Annexes to the ECE/EB.AIR/119 – “Guidance document on national nitrogen budgets".The three most important sources of data were Statistics Sweden (SCB), The Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) and Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemikalieinspektionen).

Data on some chemicals were seen as industrial secrets or - in case of e.g. explosives – as non-public data. The major flows of Nr to and from MP, were when possible calculated for the year 2015. The MP pool is dominated by Nr flows associated with chemicals, food and feed. These flows are between MP pool and pools ‘Rest of the world’ (i.e. outside Sweden), ‘Agriculture’ and ‘Humans & settlements’. The total input of reactive nitrogen to MP was 696 kt N and the outputs 636 kt N. Of the eight pools considered in a complete national N budget, the MP pool is rather central. MP has the largest flows of Nr in and out of the pool and it includes the major Nr flows associated with import and export of chemicals, products to and from the pool Agriculture, and Nr flows to the pool Humans and settlements.

This report describes the flow of reactive nitrogen for forests and semi-natural vegetation in Sweden according to the methodology developed within the framework of the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN). Forest and semi-natural vegetation (FS) constitute one out of 8 pools for the Swedish National Nitrogen Budget. The FS pool is divided into the three compartments; forest, wetland and other land. Together they amount to 71% of the country area.

The data used has been collected from Swedish official statistics and reports and are representative for year 2015 whenever possible.

In total, the FS pool has inflows of reactive nitrogen of 175.8 kilotonnes (kt) and outflows of 188.6 kt. The largest inflow is from atmospheric deposition (99.3 kt) and the largest outflow is via leaching/runoff (67.4 kt). Forestry is a major industry in Sweden and the nitrogen flow from the forest due to harvest is the second largest outflow from the FS-pool (58.5 kt). Biological fixation of nitrogen is an important inflow for both forest (39.5 kt) and wetland (32.1 kt). Other land (which mostly consists of mountains) is of smaller quantitative importance and only has two flows: leaching/runoff and deposition (2.9 kt N and 2.9 kt N, respectively).

This report presents pool ‘Humans and settlement’ of the Swedish National Nitrogen Budget (NNB), one of the eight major pools defined by the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen within the Air Convention (CLRTAP). A complete NNB captures all major flows of all forms of reactive nitrogen (Nr) within a country and across the country borders. In the ‘Humans and settlement’ pool the largest flows of Nr are associated with imported and produced products, food and discarded waste, mainly material waste.

Base cation deposition from the atmosphere provides, together with weathering, ions for neutralising acidity and, after sufficient reductions of acidifying deposition, a source for replenishing lost base cation pools. In the integrated assessment modelling to support the strategies of pollution abatement, a need for base cation data over Europe has been expressed. Data are needed by the scientists working with acidification effects and recovery of ecosystems. A study has been made on a procedure for mapping base cation deposition over the Nordic countries, with an additional aim of recommendations for base cation mapping on a European scale. The mapping over the Nordic countries was made using the data assimilation part of the MATCH model, run with a resolution of 11x11 km. The mapping was based on monitoring data for concentrations of base cations in air and precipitation in the Nordic and surrounding countries.The influence of base cation deposition in the calculation of critical loads and their exceedance as well as for the dynamic modelling of recovery processes was analysed and base cation deposition was found to be of significant importance. For dynamic modelling, the influence of base cation deposition is less important when using models, which are calibrated with monitoring data. However, in prognoses for the future, it is still very with accurate estimates of the base cation deposition. The procedure for mapping base cation deposition proposed in this project represents an improvement with respect to many previous mapping exercises, because it includes both wet and dry estimates of base cation deposition, and because it handles the decreasing sea salt gradients from the coast towards inland. It is recommended in the report to use the experiences from this Nordic mapping activitiy to initiate a process to compile necessary monitoring and emission data in order to carry out a mapping procedure of base cation deposition at European level.

Street trees are an important part of urban vegetation due to their provisioning of different types of ecosystem services such as local climate regulation and contribution to aesthetical and recreational values. In order to provide these services, urban trees need to endure many stress factors not present in natural environments, such as the widespread use of impervious surfaces in the vicinity of street trees. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of this potential stress factor on urban tree growth.

The aim of this study was therefore to investigate how ground surface permeability affects stem and current-year shoot growth of linden (Tilia europaea) street trees in Gothenburg, Sweden. We found that a small fraction of permeable ground surface in the vertically projected tree crown area caused lower stem growth and strongly suppressed current-year shoot growth. This finding can guide future city planning, demonstrating that the vitality of street trees is compromised when the permeable surface area in the vicinity of the tree is small.

The transport of dissolved organic carbon from land to ocean is a large dynamic component of the global carbon cycle. Inland waters are hotspots for organic matter turnover, via both biological and photochemical processes, and mediate carbon transfer between land, oceans and atmosphere. However, predicting dissolved organic carbon reactivity remains problematic. Here we present in situ dissolved organic carbon budget data from 82 predominantly European and North American water bodies with varying nutrient concentrations and water residence times ranging from one week to 700 years.

We find that trophic status strongly regulates whether water bodies act as net dissolved organic carbon sources or sinks, and that rates of both dissolved organic carbon production and consumption can be predicted from water residence time. Our results suggest a dominant role of rapid light-driven removal in water bodies with a short water residence time, whereas in water bodies with longer residence times, slower biotic production and consumption processes are dominant and counterbalance one another. Eutrophication caused lakes to transition from sinks to sources of dissolved organic carbon. We conclude that rates and locations of dissolved organic carbon processing and associated CO2 emissions in inland waters may be misrepresented in global carbon budgets if temporal and spatial reactivity gradients are not accounted for.

In this report, pool 7 ‘Atmosphere’ (AT) of the Swedish National Nitrogen Budget (NNB) is presented.

The atmospheric pool of NNB is one of the 8 major pools defined by the Task Force of Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN) which together represent a total national nitrogen budget capturing all major flows of all forms of reactive nitrogen (Nr) within a country and across the country borders.

The methodology to calculate NNB has been provided by the Expert Panel on Nitrogen Budgets (EPNB) in the Annexes to the ECE/EB.AIR/119 – “Guidance document on national nitrogen budgets".

The major flows of Nr to and from the tropospheric air masses above Sweden, including the Swedish national coastal waters, were calculated for the year 2015. Except for the small amount of Nr generated by lightnings, the atmospheric Nr pool is dominated by four main flows: the import and export of Nr by transboundary transport; by Swedish emissions of Nr; and by atmospheric deposition. 

The principal source of the emission data has been the official Swedish reporting to the Centre on Emission Inventories and Projections (CEIP) under the Air convention (The Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, CLRTAP).

For the reactive nitrogen deposition in Sweden the official national operational estimates by the MATCH Sweden system were used.

The results show that in 2015 Sweden was a net importer of air pollution in the form of Nr, i.e. the import of Nr from the emission sources outside the country (139 kt N) was larger than the export (96.1 kt N).

The Swedish emissions of Nr in 2015 were in total 117 kt N. The largest emissions come from two sectors: Agriculture (43.4 kt N) and Energy & Fuels (40.6 kt N). The deposition of Nr to Swedish ecosystems in 2015 was 160 kt N, of which 87% originated from emission sources abroad.

There are three major drivers that can cause future changes in lake water chemisty: air pollution, land use and climate change. In this report we used an extensive set of Swedish lakes sampled in 1995, 2000 and in 2005 to model future lake water chemistry under 5 different scenarios. The base case scenario represented deposition of air pollutants under current legislation (CLE); that is assuming that emissions of sulphur (S) and nitrogen (N) will be reduced as currently agreed by the Gothenburg protocol, NEC directive and other legislation. After the agreed emission reductions were achieved, no further reduction in deposition was assumed and deposition was maintained constant up to year 2100. The base scenario assumed no change in current forestry practices and no climate change. A second other deposition scenario was based on maximum (technically) feasible emission reduction (MFR). The MFR scenario also did not assume change of either forestry practices or climate. A maximum biomass harvest was modelled (land use, LU, scenario), which entailed harvest of tree stems, slash and stumps. A scenario of climate change (CC) followed the IPCC A2 scenario downscaled to Sweden by SMHI. Finally climate change and land use were combined (CCLU scenario). The CC, LU and CCLU scenarios were driven by the 'current legislation' (CLE) deposition scenario for S and N deposition. The biogeochemical model MAGIC was used in this project, and scenarios were evaluated up to year 2100. Special attention was paid to the impact of the future scenarios on N leaching.

High atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is expected to impair phosphorus (P) nutrition of temperate forest ecosystems. We examined N and P cycling in organic soil horizons of temperate forests exposed to long-term N addition in the northeastern USA and Scandinavia. We determined N and P concentrations, enzyme activities and net N and P mineralization rates in organic soil horizons of two deciduous (Harvard Forest, Bear Brook) and two coniferous (Klosterhede, Ga°rdsjo¨n) forests which had received experimental inorganic N addition between 25 and 150 kg N ha-1 year-1 for more than 25 years. Long-term N addition increased the activity of phosphatase (? 180%) and the activity of carbon (C)- and N-acquiring enzymes (cellobiohydrolase: ? 70%, chitinase: ? 25%). Soil N enrichment increased the N:P ratio of organic soil horizons by up to 150%. In coniferous organic soil horizons, net N and P mineralization were small and unaffected by N addition. In deciduous organic soil horizons, net N and P mineralization rates were significantly higher than at the coniferous sites, and N addition increased net N mineralization by up to 290%. High phosphatase activities concomitant with a 40% decline in P stocks of deciduous organic soil horizons indicate increased plant P demand. In summary, projected future global increases in atmospheric N deposition may induce P limitation in deciduous forests, impairing temperate forest growth.

Effects of long-term nitrogen addition on phosphorus cycling in organic soil horizons of temperate forests. The paper summarize four long-term N-addition experiments from US and from Europe,where Gårdsjön, Sweden is one of the two conifer sites.

Sweden has an official procedure for determining whether or not a water body is acidified, and thereby qualified for remedial measures such as liming. The criterion of anthropogenic acidification is that the decrease in lake pH relative to pre-industrial status be more than 0.4 pH units (?pH). The pre-industrial pH is estimated by means of the dynamic biogeochemical model MAGIC. In cases for which data are insufficient to calibrate MAGIC, an estimation of pre-industrial pH can be obtained by use of the MAGIC library (www.ivl.se/magicbibliotek). The MAGIC library consists of calibrations for hundreds of lakes and streams in Sweden. The library has a matching procedure to select the lake in the library that most closely resembles the lake to be evaluated. The ?pH of the evaluation lake is then assumed to be that of the library lake. 

Chronic high deposition of nitrogen (N) to forest ecosystems can lead to increased leaching of inorganic N to surface waters, enhancing acidification and eutrophication. For 26 years nitrogen has been added as ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) at 40kgN ha-1 yr-1 to a whole forested catchment ecosystem at Gårdsjön, Sweden, to experimentally simulate the transition from a N-limited to N-rich state.

Over the first 10 years of treatment there was an increasing amount of nitrate (NO3-) and to a lesser extent ammonium (NH4+) lost in runoff, but then N leaching stabilised, and for the subsequent 16 years the fraction of N added lost in runoff remained at 9%. NO3- concentrations in runoff were low in the summer during the first years of treatment, but now are high throughout the year. High frequency sampling showed that peaks in NO3- concentrations generally occurred with high discharge, and were enhanced if high discharge coincided with occasions of N addition.

Approximately 50% of the added N has gone to the soil. The added N is equivalent to 140 years of ambient N deposition. At current ambient levels of N deposition there thus appears to be no immediate risk of N saturation at this coniferous forest ecosystem, and by inference to other such N-limited forests in Scandinavia.

Kapaciteten att hantera vatten och partiklar vid ett kraftigt punktutsläpp (så kallad bräddning) i en dag- och bräddvattenanläggning har testats i ett fullskaleförsök. En tankbil släppte ut 9 kubikmeter rent vatten med mikroplast, 2 g polyamidpartiklar, i en grop överst i anläggningen. Vattenprover samlades in och filtrerades och partiklarna analyserades i mikroskop. Anläggningen fördröjde effektivt det insläppta vattnet och partikelhalterna minskade mycket kraftigt mellan utsläppet och anläggningens olika delar.

Denna rapport redovisar resultat från projektet ”Effekten av sjöfartens utsläpp av svavel och kväve på överskridande av kritisk belastning för försurning och för övergödning i Sverige”, Naturvårdsverkets ärendenummer NV-07751-17. Projektet bygger på ett antal utsläppscenarier med fokus på olika sjöfartsemissionsscenarier. Dessa scenarier har tagits fram inom BONUS SHEBA (Sustainable shipping and Environment of the Baltic Sea region) projektet för åren 2012 och 2040. Rapporten visar hur överskridandet av kritisk belastning för försurning och eutrofiering i Sverige påverkas av sjöfarten.

This report presents the results of a project undertaken by Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark related to the National Nitrogen Budget (NNB) with a focus on the NNB pool Forests and semi-natural vegetation (FS). The NNB involves calculations of reactive nitrogen (Nr) inflows and outflows within the FS pool, and the study compares these calculations to reports of carbon sequestration in climate reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).Norway and Finland initiated their work on NNB, concentrating on Forests and semi-natural vegetation (FS). The UNECE LRTAP Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN) methodology was also used for compiling the FS pool for Denmark, while Sweden had established its FS pool prior to the project.The FS pool comprises three sub-pools: forests, wetlands, and other lands. Inflows of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to the FS pool are primarily from deposition and biological N-fixation, with major outflows being leaching, harvest, and denitrification.In Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, the inflows and outflows are in balance, while in Norway, there is an accumulation of Nr, indicating a surplus of nitrogen. Wetland sub-pools in all four countries and the forest sub-pool in Norway show nitrogen accumulation.All four countries report carbon sequestration in forests to UNFCCC.

There is a link between nitrogen and carbon cycles, since the organic matter forming the carbon stock in forests and wetlands relies on nitrogen. The origin of nitrogen contributing to the estimated C-stock increase needs further investigation.There is a discrepancy between the calculated nitrogen changes in the FS pool and the nitrogen needed to support reported carbon stock changes. Possible explanations for the discrepancies are re-location of nitrogen within pools, changes in the C/N ratio, expansion of forested areas, and uncertainties in N-fixation rates and denitrification.There is a need for better integration of carbon and nitrogen flux and stock change estimates in natural ecosystems. Understanding the interactions between carbon and nitrogen is deemed crucial for predicting future developments in carbon sequestration and impacts of nitrogen deposition, especially for the Nordic countries with their significant forests playing roles as carbon and nitrogen sinks.

The MAGIC library is an acidification assessment tool that allows lakes and watercourses to be assessed with a similar water. In this way, tens of thousands of lakes and watercourses have been assessed. In connection with these assessments, a number of cases have been identified where the calculated reference values have been judged to be unrealistic based on other knowledge that the users of the MAGIC library possess. Administrators at the county administrative boards responsible for liming, were requested to send in documentation on such objects where the acidification assessment with the MAGIC library was considered incorrect. As much relevant background information as possible was requested so that explanations for the different assessments could be investigated. Eight county administrative boards responded to the query. Based on the collected material, MAGIC (Model of Acidification of Groundwater in Catchments) -modeled objects and MAGIC library results were compared with historical fish data, with measured water chemistry including trends over time and a comparison with measured and modeled atmospheric precipitation was made.

The study compared the occurrence of roaches from the end of the 19th century in Värmland with modeled water chemistry. Roaches were found in most of the lakes, including lakes with a low modeled pH. However, there is a clearly decreasing proportion of lakes with the occurrence of roaches the lower the modeled pH of the waters. This is in contrast to, for example, the much less acid-sensitive perch where no connection between occurrence and historically modeled pH could be discerned. Lakes with low pH and where roach occurred at the end of the 19th century have on average a higher content of dissolved organic carbon than lakes with higher pH.

A comparison between measured time series from lakes and modeled values for the same lake in the MAGIC library shows that the magnitude of the modeled trend in many cases is larger than the observed trend. The picture is not entirely unambiguous, and the differences are greater for sulphate than for ANC (acid neutralizing ability), but that the model overestimates the trend occurs much more often than the other way around. This is largely due to the fact that there is a tendency for the model to overestimate the sulphate content in the lakes at the beginning of the measurements. The reason for this can vary, but correct modeling of time trends in the runoff presupposes that the time development of the deposition of sulfur, nitrogen and base cations used in the modeling has followed reality.

IVL har beskrivit effekter av fem olika scenarier för framtida skogsbruk under en skogsgeneration på markens och avrinningens återhämtning från försurning. Studien har utförts med hjälp av den dynamiska datamodellen MAGIC. Beräkningarna har tillämpats på välstuderat skogsbestånd i norra Skåne med försurad mark och bördig granskog som är representativt för sydvästra Sverige. Skogsmarken på den studerade lokalen försurades kraftigt under en period i mitten av 1900-talet med ökande deposition av försurande luftföroreningar, i synnerhet svavel, enligt modellberäkningarna. Samtidigt etablerades dessutom ett bördigt granbestånd som med tiden ökade upptaget av baskatjoner, vilket bidrog till markförsurningen. Den kraftigt minskade depositionen av svavel efter 1980 gav ett utrymme för en återhämtning från försurning, indikerat av stigande ANC och minskande halter av oorganiskt aluminium i markvatten, som kommer att vara märkbar under de närmaste decennierna oavsett typen av skogsbruk. Enligt beräkningarna planar återhämtningen därefter ut på en nivå som är långt från utgångsläget för mer än 100 år sedan med avseende på surhetstillstånd.

Nedfallet av försurande ämnen över Sverige har minskat och förväntas minska ytterligare och den efterföljande återhämtningen från försurning har varit tydlig i många sjöar och vattendrag. Det betyder dock inte att alla sjöar och vattendrag fullt ut har återhämtat sig eller kommer göra det med nuvarande utsläppsnivå. Kritisk belastning (critical load, CL) har under många år varit ett utmärkt verktyg som har tillhandahållit argument vid utsläppsbegränsningsförhandlingar.

I denna rapport har den nyligen modifierade metodiken för att beräkna kritisk belastning använts. Uträkningarna har använt data från MAGIC-biblioteket som under våren 2016 uppdaterades med bland annat nya skogbruksscenarier. Med dagens nedfall av svavel och kväve ligger överskridandet av kritisk belastning på strax över 10 % av Sveriges yta och CL-överskridandet kommer att ligga på denna nivå även inom nära framtid (2020). Detta resultat överensstämmer i stort med tidigare men med den högre upplösning av resultaten som finns i denna rapport förtydligas den geografiska skillnaden mellan den relativt hårt drabbade södra delen av landet och de mycket mindre belastade norra och mellersta delarna av Sverige. Att resultaten i stort överensstämmer med tidigare nivåer tolkar vi som att beräkningsmetodiken är robust och att de implementerade justeringarna ger ett ännu bättre underlag för nationellt arbete samtidigt som de tidigare internationellt rapporterade resultaten fortsatt är i samma storleksordning.

Skogsbruket är en viktig del i CL-beräkningen. Man kan konstatera att en stor (och relativt sett allt större) del av de utbytbara baskatjoner som finns i markens katjonbyteskomplex och som tillförs marken genom vittring och nedfall nyttjas av skogsbruket och därför inte finns tillgängliga för att motverka försurningen. Konsekvensen blir att det spelar stor roll för CL-beräkningen vilket skogsbruk som används i beräkningen. Detta är dock bara ett konstaterande och inte skäl till att revidera den svenska hållningen i frågan att baskatjonupptag motsvarande stamvedsuttaget på 2010 års nivå ska användas vid kritiskbelastningsberäkningar.

This report is only available in Swedish. English summary is available in the report.

Acrossmuch of the northern hemisphere, lakes are at risk of re-acidification due to incomplete recovery fromhistorical acidification and pressures associated withmore intensive forest biomass harvesting. Critical load (CL) calculations aimed at estimating the amount of pollutants an ecosystem can receive without suffering adverse consequences are dependent on these factors. Here, we present a modelling study of the potential effects of intensified forest harvesting on re-acidification of a set of 3239 Swedish lakes based on scenarios with varying intensities of forest biomass harvest and acid deposition. There is some evidence that forestrywould have caused a certain level of acidification even if deposition remained at 1860 levels. We show that all plausible harvest scenarios delay recovery due to increased rates of base cation removal. Scenario resultswere used to estimate critical loads for the entire population of lakes in Sweden. The forestry intensity included in critical load calculations is a political decision. After scaling calculations to the national level, it was apparent that a high but plausible forest harvest intensity would lead to an increase in the area of CL exceedances and that even after significant reductions in forest harvest intensity, there would still be areas with CL exceedances. Our results show that forest harvest intensity and regional environmental change must be carefully considered in future CL calculations.

We have developed a tool, the MAGIC library, which provides an acidification assessment for any given lake or stream in Sweden based on ten parameters describing lake geographical position, surface area, annual discharge and observed lake water chemistry. The MAGIC library consists of two key components: a library of the existing MAGIC model simulations for 2438 lakes and an analogue matching routine that selects the library lake which is most similar to the evaluation lake described by the ten parameters. The acidification assessment modelled by MAGIC for the library lake is then assumed valid for the evaluation lake. For more than 90% of the library lakes tested, the MAGIC library provided the same acidification assessment as the site-specific MAGIC model simulation. Labour and data requirements for assessment by the MAGIC library are very modest relative to the needs of site-specific MAGIC (or other similar) model simulations. The relative ease of use is essential for a country like Sweden, with a population of 100 000 lakes. The MAGIC library has a web interface (http://magicbiblioteket.ivl. se) to provide single assessments interactively or multiple assessments by uploading the ten required parameters for multiple sites. Conceptually the library has built-in flexibility and could be adapted for other types of ecosystems or assessments. In this paper we describe the MAGIC library concept and evaluate the performance of the MAGIC library in comparison to site-specific MAGIC modelling.

Chronic nitrogen (N) deposition from anthropogenic emissions alter N cycling of forests in Europe and in other impacted areas. It disrupts plant/microbe interactions in originally N-poor systems, based on a symbiosis of plants with ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM). ECM fungi that are capable of efficient nutrient mining from complex organics and their long-distance transport play a key role in controlling soil N mineralization and immobilization, and eventual nitrate (NO₃⁻) leaching. Current meta-analyses highlight the importance of ECM biomass in securing the large soil N pool. At the same time, they point to the adverse effect of long-term N input on ECM fungi. The functioning of N-poor and N-overloaded forests is well understood, while the transient stages are much less explored. Therefore, we focused on the spruce-forest dominated catchment at Gårdsjön (Sweden) that received N addition of 40 kg N ha⁻¹yr⁻¹ over 24 years (a cumulative N input of >1200 kg N ha⁻¹) but still loses via runoff only <20% of annual N input (deposition + addition) as NO₃⁻. We found that, compared to the control, the N-addition catchment had a much larger soil microbial biomass. The N addition did not change the fungi/bacteria ratio, but a larger share of the bacterial community was made up of copiotrophs. Furthermore, fungal community composition shifted to more nitrophilic ECM fungi (contact and short exploration type ECM species) and saprotrophs. Such a restructured community has been more active, possessed a higher specific respiration rate, enhanced organic P and C mining through enzymatic production and provided faster net N mineralization and nitrification. These may be early indications of alleviation of N limitation of the system. We observed no signs of soil acidification related to N additions. The larger, structurally and functionally adapted soil microbial community still provides an efficient sink for the added N in the soil and is likely to be one of the explanations for low NO₃⁻ leaching that have stabilized in the last decade. Our results suggest that a microbial community can contribute to effective soil N retention in spite of the partial relative retreat (20–30%) of nitrophobic ECM fungi with large external mycelia, provided the fungal biomass remains high because of replacement by other ECM and saprotrophic fungi. Furthermore, we assume that N retention of similar C-rich boreal forests (organic soil molar C/N ~35) is not necessarily threatened by a large cumulative N dose provided N enters at a moderate rate, does not cause acidification and the soil microbial community has time to adapt through structural and functional changes.

Increased anthropogenic nitrogen (N) inputs can alter the N cycle and affect forest ecosystem functions. The impact of increased N deposition depends among others on the ultimate fate of N in plant and soil N pools. Short-term studies (3–18 months) have shown that the organic soil layer was the dominant sink for N. However, longer time scales are needed to investigate the long-term fate of N. Therefore, the soils of four experimental forest sites across Europe were re-sampled ~ 2 decades after labelling with 15N. The sites covered a wide range of ambient N deposition varying from 13 to 58 kg N ha−1 year−1. To investigate the effects of different N loads on 15N recovery, ambient N levels were experimentally increased or decreased. We hypothesized that: (1) the mineral soil would become the dominant 15N sink after 2 decades, (2) long-term increased N deposition would lead to lower 15N recovery levels in the soil and (3) variables related to C dynamics would have the largest impact on 15N recovery in the soil. The results show that large amounts of the added 15N remain in the soil after 2 decades and at 2 out of 4 sites the 15N recovery levels are higher in the mineral soil than in the organic soil. The results show no clear responses of the isotopic signature to the changes in N deposition. Several environmental drivers are identified as controlling factors for long-term 15N recovery. Most drivers that significantly contribute to 15N recovery are strongly related to the soil organic matter (SOM) content. These findings are consistent with the idea that much of the added 15N is immobilized in the SOM. In the organic soil layer, we identify C stock, thickness of the organic layer, N-status and mean annual temperature of the forest sites as most important controlling factors. In the mineral soil we identify C stock, C content, pH, moisture content, bulk density, temperature, precipitation and forest stand age as most important controlling factors. Overall, our results show that these temperate forests are capable of retaining long-term increased N inputs preferably when SOM availability is high and SOM turnover and N availability are low.

The Model of Acidification of Groundwaters in Catchments (MAGIC) was used to simulate the impact of acidifying deposition and future recovery at the Gårdsjön Covered Catchment Experiment, at a number of hypothetical stations defined by statistical variation of the Gårdsjön data and at 20 forest monitoring sites in Southern Sweden. For the future predictions a decrease of sulphur deposition of more then 70% was assumed. This assumption is based on a full implementation of the agreements made under the second sulphur protocol from 1994. The modelled impact of reduced deposition on the soils and on the runoff waters was discussed. To complement the discussion on long-term trends in future run-off chemistry, data from Gårdsjön has been used to asses the risk for short-term acid runoff episodes

Forskningsprogrammet CLEO, Climate change and Environmental Objectives, startades 2010 efter en utlysning från Naturvårdsverket där man efterfrågade forskning med en övergripande målsättning att få: * En analys och kvantifiering av hur förändringar i klimatet, såsom temperatur, nederbörd och avrinning, påverkar förutsättningarna att nå de miljömål som påverkas av långväga transporterade luftföroreningar * En beskrivning och analys av synergier och målkonflikter av åtgärder, både nationellt och internationellt, för att minska utsläpp av växthusgaser och andra luftföroreningar för att nå uppsatta miljömål. * Förbättrad kunskap om grundläggande processer för att ta fram tillförlitliga prognoser och scenarier för utvecklingen mot miljömålen, förbättrade indata till existerande modeller samt bättre sammanlänkning av modeller för klimat, luft och ekosystem.

Programmet har fokuserat på miljömålen Frisk luft, Bara Naturlig Försurning, Ingen övergödning och i viss mån Giftfri miljö. Då målsättningen var att ta fram resultat som är relevanta för pågående arbete med miljömålen och för långsiktiga överväganden så har CLEO arbetat med framtidsscenarier som både fokuserat på en relativt nära framtid (2030), och i vissa avseenden ett längre tidsperspektiv (2100).

This report is only available in Swedish. English summary is available in the report.

This report was prepared in connection with the scientific evaluation of the ASTA programme in May, 2002. It consists of a comprehensive summary of the approaches and results from the different ASTA sub programmes. ASTA is presently in its fourth and last year of the first phase. The report is not intended to give a full description of all relevant aspects of the problem of transboundary air pollution but rather discuss some crucial problems and their possible scientific solutions. After the preparation and submission of this report, ASTA has been positively evaluated and will continue into its second phase. The evaluation reports as well as a letter of intent for the second phase of the ASTA programme are available on the ASTA web page (http://asta.ivl.se). Further information of the programme is also available at the web page. For those who wish to receive more information of the programme, there is a list of contact persons at the end of the report. Many of the ASTA phase 1 activities are currently in a state of intense evaluation and reporting and additional scientific results as well as synthesises and assessments will be prepared during the remainder of 2002.

This report is only available in Swedish.

This report is only available in Swedish.

IVL har sedan hösten 2015 på uppdrag från LKAB mätt vattenflöden i sjön Ala Lombolos utlopp och sedan sommaren 2016 även vid sjöns inlopp, vilka ingår i Luossajokis avrinningsområde. Under 2017 installerade IVL utrustning för mätning av vattennivåer i sjön, Yli Lombolo, uppströms Ala Lombolo. Arbetet syftar till att generera högkvalitativt dataunderlag till ett prövotidsförfarande relaterat till ett miljötillstånd som LKAB erhållit för åtgärder i sjön Luossajärvi. Inom uppdraget ”Flödesmätningar i Rakkurijärvi” installerade IVL på uppdrag av LKAB under år 2016 tre stycken vattenföringsstationer: nedströms Mettä-Rakkurijärvis utlopp, 220 m uppströms vägbron, vid utloppet från Rakkurijärvi och vid Pahtohajåkk.

European ecosystems have been subject to extensiveshifts in anthropogenic disturbance, primarilythrough atmospheric deposition, climate change,and land management. 

These changes have alteredthe macronutrient composition of aquatic systems,with widespread increases in organic carbon (C),and declines in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).Less well known is how these disturbances haveaffected nutrient stoichiometry, which may be amore useful metric to evaluate the health ofaquatic ecosystems than individual nutrient concentrations.

The Swedish west coast has historicallyexperienced moderate to high levels of atmosphericdeposition of sulfate and N, and eutrophication. Inaddition, coastal waters have been darkening withdamaging effects on marine flora and fauna.

Here,we present three decades of macronutrient datafrom twenty lakes and watercourses along the Swedish west coast, extending from headwaters toriver mouths, across a range of land covers, andwith catchments ranging 0.037–40,000 km2. Wefind a high degree of consistency between thesediverse sites, with widespread increasing trends inorganic C, and declines in inorganic N and total P.

These trends in individual macronutrients translateinto large stoichiometric changes, with a doublingin C:P, and increases in C:N and N:P by 50% and30%, showing that freshwaters are moving furtheraway from the Redfield Ratio, and becoming evenmore C rich, and depleted in N and P.

Althoughrecovery from atmospheric deposition is linked tosome of these changes, land cover also appears tohave an effect; lakes buffer against C increases, anddecreases in inorganic N have been greatest underarable land cover. Our analysis also detects coherentlydeclining P concentrations in small forestlakes; so called (and unexplained) ‘‘oligotrophication.’’

Taken together, our findings show thatfreshwater macronutrient concentrations and stoichiometryhave undergone substantial shifts duringthe last three decades, and these shifts can potentiallyexplain some of the detrimental changes thatadjacent coastal ecosystems are undergoing.

Ourfindings are relevant for all European and NorthAmerican waters that have experienced historicallyhigh levels of atmospheric deposition, and provide a starting point for understanding and mitigating against the trajectories of long-term change in aquatic systems.

I takt med att nedfallet av försurande ämnen har minskat har den naturliga återhämtningen påbörjats i mark och vatten. Det finns emellertid en möjlighet att återhämtningen eventuellt bromsas av tillfälliga försurningsepisoder. Om så är fallet bör episodförsurning inkluderas i revideringen av Naturvårdsverkets bedömningsgrunder för försurning av ytvatten, tillstånd och påverkan. Försurningsepisoder definieras i denna rapport som en kraftig avvikelse från medelkemin vilket kan ha en stor betydelse för det biologiska livet. Två olika typer av försurningsepisoder har identifierats; torkstyrda episoder samt havssaltepisoder, den föregående framkallad av sommartorka och den senare av stormar. Episoder orsakad av höga flöden och snösmältning kunde inte påvisas i någon av bäckarna. Oavsett drivfaktor ger episoderna upphov till en sänkning av ANC samt en ökning av oorganiskt Al. Sänkningen är tillfällig och kortvarig. Redan vid nästa mättillfälle (vanligtvis 2-4 veckor) har vattenkemin återställts till de förhållanden som rådde innan försurningsepisoden. Återhämtningen från försurning är påtaglig i de vattendrag som ingår i studien vilket innebär att torkstyrda episoder inte längre är ett försurningsproblem i södra Sverige och därmed inte behöver beaktas i en revidering av bedömningsgrunderna. Risken för havssaltepisoder är fortfarande hög, men endast i en begränsad del av landet (kustnära områden i sydvästra delen av Sverige). I övriga delar av södra Sverige verkar kraftiga havssaltnedfall inte leda till episodförsurning. Klimatförändringar, främst ökad stormfrekvens, kan öka depositionen av havssalt och därmed även risken för försurningseffekter i framtiden.

This deliverable reports on the activities conducted as part of Task 5.2.The objective is to a) contributeto improving resilience to releases of contaminated water in the Göteborg case study and b) to identifysocial and organizational enablers for the development and effective use of technologies fordigitalization of water management. For this purpose, we used tools developed for identifying, visualizingand evaluating/acting upon data addressing resilience in critical infrastructures, defined and quantifiedthrough indicators.The framework for the deliverable is based upon a) a previous H2020 project regarding the design,implementation and added value from using the tools as well as b) findings from the SCOREwaterdeliverable D5.1 regarding issues of stakeholder engagement, user involvement and implementation/evaluation (focusing on the two former).

Through an iterative design process, we created a baseline witha scenario with regard to resilience against the release of insufficiently purified water from a worksitein the West link construction project in Göteborg. Based upon the baseline we created a business casefor what we wanted to measure and improve through the tools. We created two checklists for measuringand acting upon data on resilience addressing the business case. Finally, we identified a few bestpractices for stakeholder engagement as well as examples of how to make best use of the technologiesand services to be developed and deployed in the SCOREwater project.The deliverable provides a process description of the successive iteration we carried out. We show halffinishedchecklists for resilience measurement, describe stakeholder feedback from these and asuccessive development of the business case and the checklists.

The process illustrates that the tool isuseful for this context and provide a beneficial illustration for how to create useful checklists thatstakeholders benefit from to increase knowledge about resilience and how to improve resilience. Thebest practices for introducing and adapting the resilience tools were to do “homework” properly (that isto identify the relevant baseline) and to interact intensively to identify and define stakeholder issuessuch as:1. What is the regulatory context setting the rules of the game?2. Who are the relevant actors, their responsibilities and their possible contributions?3. What are their problems and motivations (pains and gains)?4. What added value can the tools provide?5. How can the purpose of using the tools best be aligned with and add to the overall project/casestudy objectives?Similarly, the replication of the tools in Amersfoort and possibly Barcelona require doing the “homework”and engaging in identifying baselines and business cases as well as how to implement them into existingpractices.Contribution to the case study: The Göteborg municipal environmental board saw the tools as anopportunity to develop methods for early warning, such as enabling mitigation of negative environmentalimpacts on recipients from the release of stormwater and process water from construction sites.Construction companies saw that the tools provided potentials for improving knowledge of resilience oftheir water management as well as potentials to improve their resilience. Stakeholders stressed that ifthe organizational capacities to make use of the data and services provided by improvements in sensorcapability and AI solutions are not improved, overall resilience would not be improved. The baseline is also useful to measure the impacts in a later stage of the project.

Contribution to the project: The social and organizational enablers identified to make best use of thetechnologies and services to be developed and deployed in the SCOREwater project were related to thecommunicative and organizational abilities to react to and how to use the improvements in sensortechnology and AI solutions. The business case provides an example of how added value could help toimprove current practices at construction sites and provide arguments for the possibility for morestringent regulation and oversight due to improved technology. This includes e.g. workplace routines foracting upon alarms, as well as more frequent reporting to authorities, based upon real-time monitoringand using AI technology for proxy indicators.

A challenge describes both opportunities and barriers, and an enabler provides means to manage achallenge.

The framework for the deliverable is based upon identifying process facilitators (e.g.workshops) and discursive abilities/devices providing enablers that partners used in order to make senseacross organizations and professional communities (developers and users) as a means to develop anddeploy digital technologies and services.

IVL lead the work and edited the deliverable. Gothenburg city (CGEA), city of Amersfoort (COA) andBarcelona waste and wastewater company (BCASA) provided experiences as stakeholder and dataprovider, through user involvement.

IVL Swedish Environmental Institute, Eurecat (EUT), Talkpool (TP),Civity (CIV) provided experiences from development and implementation work (focusing on stakeholderengagement and user involvement). They all contributed to the deliverable through meetings and writingone section each. Analysing the same processes from different points of view provided interesting insightsinto the development process and implications for the coming phases of the project.

The Gothenburg section expresses how insights from cooperation issues from before the project, wereturned into a well-designed collaboration process (process facilitator) between developers andusers/stakeholders. In Gothenburg, engaging with various departments within the municipality and withexternal stakeholders has been a continuing learning process for IVL (case study leader).

IVL graduallypresented various opportunities within the project, both in Amersfoort and Barcelona, which has beenvery much appreciated by the stakeholders. In this way, the engagement process has also enabledstakeholders to envision a number of opportunities that the new technologies empower that can becontinued beyond SCOREwater.

Moreover, due to a fruitful collaboration between developers and stakeholders, both Gothenburg andBarcelona cities now envision even more opportunities and ambitions, some of which might be realizedwithin the project, some outside.Both Amersfoort and Barcelona also analyse how insights from different organizational issues influencedtheir design of process facilitators and discursive abilities.

The Amersfoort section shows the influencefrom a) the different organizational structures and motives between the municipality, the for-profitcompanies and citizen volunteers and b) the differences in work processes between their policy makersand data analysts, people that seemed to be previously unfamiliar with working together.

The first issuewas addressed through finding common ground in the objectives (added value as a discursive device) andthe second through designing a common process – going from simple to more complex hypothesis.

In the Barcelona case, BCASA realized a) that they needed to “translate” their needs and concepts withregard to wastewater maintenance to other Catalan partners and b) that they needed to involve andengage both workers and managers at several departments for the SCOREwater project so that theyunderstand.

see and value the benefits it provide and therefore engage in and support the SCOREwaterproject. EUT, TP and CIV expressed fewer specific challenges than the case studies, using familiar andproved process facilitators and discursive devices (CRISP-DM business modelling and user stories).

Excessive amounts of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the hydrosphere can impair water quality and alter the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Monitoring of water bodies and awareness of the existing flows of nitrogen from different sectors in society can support policy making. In this report we quantified the major flows of Nr in the Hydrosphere pool of the Swedish National Nitrogen Budget, according to the methodology provided by the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen. Calculations were done for one full year using data mainly from 2014 but also from 2015.

In 2014/2015, the largest inflows of Nr to the Swedish hydrosphere were leaching from agriculture (53 kilotonnes, kt), from forests (48 kt), atmospheric deposition (33 kt), leaching from wetlands and other land (20 kt) and municipal wastewater treatment plants (17 kt). In addition, there were minor contributions from industrial wastewaters, small dwellings and from stormwater runoff. The major outflows were transport from the coastal waters to the open sea and marine denitrification (together 127 kt) and denitrification from freshwaters (34 kt) N. In addition, there were quantitatively less important Nr losses through fishing, N2O emissions and water abstraction.

Data come from Svenska MiljöEmissionsData, Statistics Sweden, Nationellt vattentäktsarkiv and SMHI.

This report presents pool 1 “Energy and fuels” (EF) in the Swedish national nitrogen budget (NNB). The EF pool is divided into four sub-pools; Energy conversion (EC), Manufacturing industries and construction (IC), Transport (TR) and Other energy and fuels (OE).

The Swedish data presented in this report are for 2015 whenever possible. If data were not available for 2015, available information for the year closest to 2015 have been used. The data were collected from Swedish official statistics and reports and preferably from sources that will continue to be updated, to make it easier to evaluate possible changes in N budgets in the future.

Emissions of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to the atmosphere via various combustion processes have been quantified as they have been reported to international conventions (CLRTAP and UNFCCC) broken down by the codes used in those reports. 

The largest emissions of Nr occur from transport (24.1 kt), followed by manufacturing and construction (6.7 kt), other energy and fuels (4.9 kt) and energy conversion (4.8 kt). The majority of reactive nitrogen emissions from this sector (> 90 percent) consists of NOx, and otherwise of N2O and NH3.

The import of primarily crude oil and of other oil-based fuels means a flow of N from the rest of the world to Sweden (53.5 kt). A fraction of this amount is converted to reactive forms and emitted to the atmosphere during combustion. The main part of the NOx that is emitted from fuel combustion is, however, formed when nitrogen in the air is oxidized during the combustion (thermal production of NOx) and does not originate from the N in the fuel. Remaining N in the crude oil and oil products is either removed from the fuel during cracking in refineries or converted to N2 during combustion. Development of combustion processes where NOx is not formed leads to lower emissions.  Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are produced from e.g. wheat and rapeseed. A large part of the nitrogen present in these crops will remain in the residual products after fuel production and can be used for animal feed. They do not result in any emissions of reactive nitrogen in this national nitrogen budget.

The national nitrogen budgets do not include international transport (shipping, aviation), so additional emissions of reactive nitrogen will need to be added if a global aggregation is to be made.

Denna rapport sammanfattar de svenska studier som har undersökt hur halten av löst organiskt kol (DOC) i våra vatten förändrats över tid. De trender som visats i övervakningsdata från de senaste ca 30 åren redovisas också. Syftet är att sammanställa vilka processer eller mekanismer som har påverkat DOC-halten och att uppskatta betydelsen av detta för bedömning av försurning för att på sikt ytterligare förbättra försurningsbedömningarna i svenska sjöar och vattendrag. Bedömning av försurningsstatus för en sjö eller ett vattendrag i Sverige görs antingen direkt genom modellering med MAGIC (Model of Acidification of Groundwater In Catchments) eller indirekt genom att ett antal parametrar matas in i verktyget MAGIC-biblioteket (magicbiblioteket.ivl.se) som ger en bedömning.

Ett antal studier har ett experimentellt upplägg, till exempel studeras hur DOC-halten över året skiljer sig åt i avrinningsområden med varierande andel skog och våtmark och hur tillsatser av försurande ämnen påverkar. Andra studier använder data som samlats in via miljöövervakningen för ett stort antal sjöar under de senaste decennierna.

Sedimentdata från ett urval av sjöar har studerats med metoden VNIRS (visible near-infrared spectroscopy) för att identifiera halten totalt organisk kol (TOC, i stort sett enbart bestående av DOC) över längre tidsperioder, i vissa fall flera tusen år. Dessa mätningar visar att DOC-halten sedan den senaste istiden ofta varit högre än idag. Nedgången i TOC-halt under 1900-talet har i flera studier förklarats som en påverkan av det höga svavelnedfall som skedde under framför allt mitten till slutet av 1900-talet. Förändringar i markanvändning och klimat är andra förklaringsmodeller.

Dagens försurningsbedömningar, där en förändring i pH från 1860 till idag uppskattas och en minskning i pH med mer än 0,4 pH-enheter anses innebära att sjön eller vattendraget är påverkat av försurning, bygger på att pH-värdet år 1860 kan uppskattas på ett tillförlitligt sätt. I denna rapport diskuteras DOC-haltens inverkan på bedömningen.

To better understand the magnitude of reactive nitrogen flows in a country, a national nitrogen budget can be constructed. In this report, we use a methodology developed by the Expert Panel on Nitrogen Budgets (EPNB) under the Task Force for Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN) and describe the flows of nitrogen in agriculture in Sweden in 2015.

The primary source of data presented in this report are data reported to Eurostat and UNFCCC regarding gross nutrient balance and greenhouse gases. The flows of nitrogen not covered by Eurostat and UNFCCC originate from for example the national compilations of content of feed products and slaughtering weight of animals for consumption.

The largest inputs of nitrogen to agriculture are in the form of supply of inorganic fertilizer to soil (190 kT) and feed to animals (59 kT). The largest outputs of nitrogen are in the form of products for consumers (eg crops, meat, milk, eggs) (171 kT) and emissions to the hydrosphere and atmosphere (93 kT).

In total, the inputs were 15 percent larger than the outputs, which is well within the differences found in other countries. The difference may be due to uncertainties in the collected data or that further flows may occur. Such flows should be identified and investigated in the future. The difference may also indicate that the pool of nitrogen in agriculture is not in balance, i.e. nitrogen is stored in the soil.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) affects the acidity in soil and lake waters and buffers both against acidification and against recovery from acidification. Current acidification assessments, based on the widely used MAGIC (Model of Acidification of Groundwater In Catchments) model, often assume constant DOC concentrations through time, but observations suggest this assumption may not be warranted. Here we used MAGIC to investigate the effect of four different scenarios of variable DOC concentrations on acidification assessments of 75 Swedish lakes during peak acidification (1980), in the recent past (2012) and the near future (2030). In all scenarios, DOC concentrations varied to the same extent in soil and lake waters, so the effects of DOC on soil cation exchange and water acid–base chemistry were accounted for. To capture the possible span of the variable DOC effects, modelled variations covered a large range of concentration levels suggested by earlier studies. A higher proportion of the modelled lakes in the scenarios with variable DOC concentrations were assessed as acidified at the time of peak acidification compared to in the scenario with constant DOC concentration. In 2012 and 2030, the proportion of acidified lakes was in the same range regardless of historical and future DOC scenarios. This means that for management purposes, the MAGIC model with constant DOC concentration assessed the extent of acidification for the recent past and near future without bias.