Air pollution: deposition to and impacts on vegetation in (South-)East Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia (EECCA/SEE) and South-East Asia

Increased ratification of the Protocols of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) was identified as a high priority in the new long-term strategy of the Convention. Increased ratification and full implementation of air pollution abatement policies is particularly desirable for countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) and South-Eastern Europe (SEE). Hence, scientific activities within the Convention will need to involve these countries. In the current report, the ICP Vegetation has reviewed current knowledge on the deposition of air pollutants to and their impacts on vegetation in EECCA (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) and SEE countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey). As an outreach activity to Asia we have also reviewed current knowledge on this subject for the Malé Declaration countries in South-East Asia (SEA; Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Air pollution is a main concern in Asia due to enhanced industrialisation, which is directly linked to continued strong economic growth in recent decades. In these regions, there is generally a lack of an extensive network of monitoring stations to assess the magnitude of air concentrations and depositions of pollutants. In addition, emission inventories are often incomplete or not reported at all for some pollutants, which makes it difficult to validate atmospheric transport models for these regions. Furthermore, there is often a lack of coordinated monitoring networks to assess the impacts of air pollution on vegetation. Hence, the risk of adverse impacts on vegetation often has to be assessed using atmospheric transport models in conjunction with metrics developed to compute the risk of air pollution impacts on vegetation, such as critical loads and levels. Here we have focussed on the following air pollutants: nitrogen, ozone, heavy metals, POPs (EECCA/SEE countries) and aerosols, including black carbon as a component (South-East Asia).