biodiversity

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Ecosystem responses

Whether and in what way ecosystems are affected by air pollutants depends especially on the nature, concentration and time of arrival of the pollution, but also on the existing status and nature of the particular habitat. In general it can be said that:

Some environments are particularly susceptible
Ecosystems are likely to be most at risk if they are on substrates with a low buffering capacity, and/or receive occasional, heavy doses of pollution, and/or contain key species that are vulnerable. Examples of the last are bark-living communities dependent on foliar lichens and epiphyte mosses. Details of some of the most sensitive European ecosystems appear in the next section.

Air pollution tends to reduce biodiversity, but not necessarily biomass or primary production
The effects on biodiversity are summarized on page 4. The losses usually represent a decline in rarer, more sensitive species, their places being taken over by commoner and more robust species. In the case of plants, these may be many successful weed species that are adapted to a wide range of soil and climatic conditions.
Air pollution does not respect the boundaries of nature reserves and conservation areas
Because loss of habitat has long been the greatest threat to biodiversity all over the world, much conservation effort has been directed to the creation of protected areas which, however, give little protection against air pollution. There are even studies suggesting that the protected areas of Europe are especially at risk from acidifying air pollutants, since they have often been set up on low-productive ground of little commercial value – which in many cases offers little resistance to acid fallout.

Liming is not the solution
There are few possibilities, apart from reducing emissions, of getting to grips with the effects of air pollution. In Scandinavia, liming has been used for decades as a means of counteracting acidification. This has saved sensitive freshwater ecosystems, and restored damaged ones. Liming does however leave obvious problems in its trail: disruption of ecosystems, long-term changes in water chemistry, and the risk of causing further damage by the shock of sudden changes in pH value. A similar mixture of benefits and problems occurs with liming of forest soils. Fundamental in both cases is the fact that as long as pollution continues, any gains will be both partial and temporary.

Air pollution is a significant contributory factor to the global decline in biodiversity
To date, research suggests that air pollution has been involved in the decline and attenuation of species, rather than their extinction. It is likely, however, that if the trend continues, particularly sensitive groups in temperate regions will continue to decline until they have become extinct. This is, for example, a real possibility for some lichens. Pollution effects in some areas of the tropics, which are now becoming ever more widespread, can also lead to extinction of species, since both biodiversity and ecosystems are more fragile there than in temperate regions.
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