Airborne Contaminants Klondike Gold Rush NHP, Glacier Bay NP&P, Sitka NHP

1. Airborne ContaminantsKlondike Gold Rush NHP, Glacier Bay NP&P, Sitka NHP Skagway Harbor & cruise ship haze Glacier Bay and Chichagof Island: dust and smoke from fires in Eurasia Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

2. Airborne Contaminants Justification • Affects Ecosystems & Visitor Experience • Impacts Increasing with Global Industrial Expansion & Population Growth & Possibly Climate Change • Partnership with other Agencies and Allows Inferences at a Regional Scale Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

3. Airborne Contaminants – Common to all SEAN parks Justification • All SEAN Park are Potential Receptors of: • Cruise ship emissions and other marine transportation Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

4. Airborne Contaminants – Common to all SEAN parks Justification • All AK Parks are Potential Targets of: • Industrial emissions from Eurasia such as smelters, coal fired generators Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

5. Airborne Contaminants - ecosystems and visitor experience Justification Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Program • Provided reference data • Provided inspiration and expertise • Demonstrated contaminant are a potentially serious threat to Alaskan ecosystems, and subsistence resources • Demonstrated bioaccumulation in fish Landers, D. H. et al. 2008. The fate, transport, and ecological impacts of airborne contaminants in western national parks (USA). EPA/600/R-07/138, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), Western Ecology Division. Covallis OR., Corvallis, OR. Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

6. Airborne Contaminants – Protocol development Monitoring Objectives • Determine functional methods for monitoring decadal trends in select airborne contaminants at remote sites; • Model relationship between contaminant in lichen tissue, atmospheric concentrations, and deposition rates; • Assess lichen community response to changes in airborne contaminants (and or other factors). Question: Are these currently the most relevant objectives? Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

7. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Ambient Atmospheric Samplers Gaseous: HNO3, SO2, NO2, NOx, NH4 Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

8. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Ambient Atmospheric Samplers Weekly Ambient SO2 Concentrations May-Sept 2008 2009 Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

9. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Ambient Atmospheric Samplers Weekly Ambient NOx Concentrations May-Sept 2008 2009 Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

10. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Ambient Atmospheric Samplers Weekly Ambient NH3 & HNO3 Concentrations 2009 data HNO3 NH3 Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

11. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Wet Deposition Samplers Open Canopy Throughfall Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

12. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Wet Deposition Samplers Open vs Closed Canopy sites Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

13. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Wet Deposition Samplers Open vs Closed Canopy sites Juneau NADP Network Site Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

14. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Passive Wet Deposition Samplers Open sites Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

15. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach - lichens • Depend on nutrients from the air and rainfall; • A dynamic equilibrium exists between atmospheric chemicals and lichen tissue; • Long history of use as bio indicators; • Species differentially sensitivity to pollutants; • Allows a regional picture of air pollution deposition patterns. Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

16. Airborne Contaminants Rationale for Selection Partnership with the Tongass National Forest Allows Analysis & Inferences at a Regional Scale 125 permanent plots Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

17. Airborne Contaminants Monitoring Approach How are concentrations of contaminants in the air changing on a decadal cycle? • Metrics include elemental concentration for P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Al, Fe, Mn, Hg, Cu, B, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Co, Mo, Si, Ti, Be, Sr, Rb, Li, V, Ba, total nitrogen and total sulfur. Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

18. Airborne Contaminants – lichen elemental concentrations Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results How are elemental concentrations in lichen tissue changing? Lichen collection plots conducted in KLGO in1998were revisited in 2008-09. Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

19. Airborne Contaminants – lichen elemental concentrations Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results How are elemental concentrations in lichen tissue changing? Lichen collection plots conducted in KLGO in1998were revisited in 2008-09. Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

20. Airborne Contaminants – lichen elemental concentrations Monitoring Approach & Preliminary Results Spatial Comparisons Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

21. Airborne Contaminants – Mercury Deposition Monitoring Approach - Mercury Eventually map the distribution of Hg deposition for Alaska National Mercury Deposition Network GLBA and GAAR Bettles - GAAR Bartlett Cove - GLBA Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

22. Airborne Contaminants – Mercury Deposition Monitoring Approach - Mercury Investigate Regional Variation in Hg Deposition Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

23. Airborne Contaminants – lichen elemental concentrations Monitoring Approach - Mercury Mercury add to suite of analytes in 2008-09. Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

24. Acknowledgments Linda Geiser - USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Mark Fenn - USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station AndrjezBytnerowicz - USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station Karen Dillman - Tongass National Forest Sarah Jovan - USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Rick Graw - USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Albert Faure - Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation Tamara Blett – National Park Service Air Resource Division Ellen Porter - National Park Service Air Resource Division Heather Root – Oregon State University Brendan Moynahan – National Park Service, Southeast Alaska I&M Program Scott Gende - National Park Service, Southeast Alaska Coastal Cluster Lewis Sharman – Glacier Bay NP&P Andrea Blakesley – Denali NP&P Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012

25. Dave Schirokauerdave_schirokauer@nps.gov Southeast Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring Program3 Year Review – March 2012