Ozone Biomonitoring - Looking to the Future
Ed Jepsen (Wisconsin DNR), Dr. Gretchen Smith (U Mass) and Dan Stratton (SRS)
Grid Implementation
The new national ozone grid spans the country encompassing nearly all major
forest ecosystems, climate zones and ozone exposure regimes. A minimum of
938 plots located in 866 of the authorized total 1228 polygons nationwide
were surveyed in 2002 (tan color in the map below).
9. 80
6. 53
Polygons not surveyed in 2002 (red) often had minimal forests, significant
crop areas, deserts, wetlands and/or major urban areas.
The light blue polygons indicate states not on the annual inventory, but will be
added as funding permits.
Limited data is available for several of the non-annualized states because plots
had been established under the old sampling paradigm.
3. 27
3. 050
0. 00
31. 44
1. 090
23. 49
Yellow - <15 ppm-hrs sum06
Browns - + 5 ppm-hrs sum06 increments
Dark Brown - >40 ppm-hrs sum06
Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Vermont and Wisconsin exceeded
minimum plot establishment requirements thus effectively intensifying the
base grid.
Red - injured plots
Green - no injury
• Generally good agreement between injured plots and elevated
ozone exposures using 2000 data (graphic above).
• Implementation will increase indicator species (min 3) and
plants (30 per species/plot) to provide more robust sample.
• Identified forest communities have a higher incidence of foliar
injury and thus are at risk of adverse health affects. The graphic
below identifies regions in the NE where ozone sensitive species
are providing a clear injury signal. Forest plots inside of these
areas could be assessed to determine if growth and damage
variables differ substantially from plots outside of the injury
zones.
• Standardizing species and plant count to enhance inter-plot
comparisons is desired.
• Graphics on right of poster demonstrate foliar injury and ozone
exposure relationships are not linear.
• Environmental factors, such as drought, mediate injury
expression and may account for uninjured plots in the 2000 data.
• Trends detection has been the basis for two evaluation
monitoring projects to more broadly assess the relationships
between foliar injury and productivity within forest communities.
Specific studies to look at soil and moisture relationships with
injury are a priority for the ozone program.
• Species vary in their sensitivity to ozone as the data in the
tables below indicate. The distribution of the species and plants
per plot vary between regions in the older data.
s p e c ie s
m i lk w e e d
b la c kb e rry
b la c k c h e rry
do gba ne
w h it e a s h
s a s s a fr a s
s w e e tg u m
y e ll o w p o p la r
M t n . s n o w b e rry
T r e m b l in g a s p e n
P o n d e r o s a p in e
B ig le a f a s te r
S c o u l e r s w i llo w
P in c h e r r y
n in e b a rk
H u c kle b e rr y
R e d A ld e r
R e d e ld e r b e r r y
B lu e e l d e r b e r r y
J e ffe r y p i n e
m u g w o rt
W e s te r n w o r m w o o d
s kun kbu sh
C a li fo r n ia B la c k o a k
injured plots
109
55
61
0
7
T o ta l #
p lo t s
4 03
4 09
3 62
2 30
2 33
1 44
1 10
1 20
81
62
54
46
22
23
15
15
13
12
12
7
4
4
2
2
# p lo t s
in ju r e d
1 62
1 02
1 08
25
34
19
22
27
0
0
5
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
1
0
0
0
% injured
41
19
34
0
10
# p l a n ts
in ju r e d
837
890
467
111
169
71
129
142
0
0
52
4
0
10
0
0
0
0
31
9
13
0
0
0
T o ta l
p la n t s
1 0 ,3 5 1
9 ,3 4 3
7 ,8 7 7
5 ,2 3 6
5 ,1 0 4
3 ,0 5 1
2 ,6 4 7
2 ,5 2 6
2 ,2 9 9
1 ,7 5 4
1 ,5 4 2
1 ,1 8 9
59 3
51 9
40 7
35 7
32 7
31 9
28 4
19 2
12 0
12 0
47
47
Species/plot
3
3
2.4
1.5
1.8
- 2. 830
• Enhanced our understanding of the relationship between ozone
exposure, drought stress and foliar injury. The graphic above
clearly demonstrates environmental stress factors, such as
drought stress, can significantly affect foliar injury.
• Better correlation anticipated with the implementation of the
new grid (graphic to the right).
2000 plots
269
291
178
58
70
7. 60
Recent Accomplishments of the Ozone Indicator
Ozone Injury and Exposure Relationships
NE
NC
South
RM
PNW
- 0. 870
15. 55
Future Directions for Ozone Biomonitoring
• Integrate ozone elements into ISM and urban studies
• Promote regional ozone stress studies for evaluation monitoring projects
• Conduct fumigation studies to increase the number of bioindicator species
• Improve field data and post season verification through additional QA testing
• Increase injury analysis for state/national publications and scientific articles
• Use web based tools for dissemination of data and analytical products
For More Information about the Ozone Biomonitoring program contact
Dr. Gretchen Smith (gcsmith@forwild.umass.edu) or (413) 545-1680
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