Description
In order to assess the changes in the composition of the basic components affecting the functioning of ecosystems, in 1994 there was founded a network of small forest watersheds (GEOMON - GEOchemical MONitoring), which has been operating until today. Currently it provides continuous monitoring of mass balances in ecologically important elements. The data are used, i.a., for detailed and skilled calibration models simulating the impacts of climate change, and the chemical composition of precipitation and landscape management. The overall project objective is the enhancement of monitoring and balance of substance flows in small these watersheds. In particular, the project aims to make long-term monitoring data available for the needs of professional organizations and government as well as to complete the database of watersheds to cover objectively measured data on stocks of environmentally significant elements in soils and biomass. This shall be achieved also by evaluating the relationship between water quality and biodiversity of algae to estimate future ecological condition of wellspring areas on the basis of the development of the chemistry of surface waters. The project will be presented to employees of the GEOMON database state administration; research results will also be published in national and international scientific journals. Collection and promotion of the results of the GEOMON monitoring will be carried out in close coordination with personnel of scientific institutions involved in the GEOMON network. The Donor project partner is the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA). The project builds on a long-term cooperation between the beneficiary and NIVA in the acidification and eutrophication of surface waters also supported in EEA Grants 2004-2009. The partner will bring new know-how, which increases the potential for GEOMON monitoring. Conversely, the Norwegian partner will benefit from the application of the method in the Czech environment.
Summary of project results
The whole project was based on long-term measurements of the impact of acid rain and nitrogen compounds on forest ecosystems, realized in the small forest watersheds of GEOMON since 1994. The benefits of the project were reached in the following areas: a series of measurements of deposition, drainage, hydrology and chemistry were realized for two years. It is important in order to maintain the continuity of the longest time series of monitoring that is needed with the aim of detailed evaluation and prediction of the response of ecosystems to changing acid and eutrophication deposition. If the project was not implemented, it would be difficult to look for other sources of funding, as grant agencies usually do not finance monitoring activities. Additionally, complete data on soil chemistry, stocks of individual elements, and vegetation at sampling sites were gathered. These data served to evaluate the current level of "inheritance" of acidification, which took place in particular from the 1950s to the 1990s and whose cumulative effect was visible mainly in soils. The results have shown that soils, especially in mountain areas of the northern mountains, are acidified and their regeneration will be a matter of at least several decades. The phytobenthic analysis, which has not yet been performed in the Czech Republic, was a completely new monitoring measure within the project. The results clearly show that the algal composition is more affected by water acidity than their eutrophication, and that regeneration from acidification lasts for at least 5 years, even if it did not even occur in this period, perhaps a climatically conditioned acidification episode. Overall, the project was very beneficial due to above mentioned monitoring activities and its results. It is highly expected, that the project results will be long-established. The results were presented at the final project seminar and in the final study and in a separate article on phytobenthos reaction. All the data which was gained during the project implementation were placed in a publicly accessible database. These are available for the needs of professional organizations and government.
Summary of bilateral results
The project was implemented in cooperation with partner - the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), represented by prof. Susi Schneider. Field work was carried out by the Norwegian partner in the Czech Republic in June 2015 and laboratory analysis of phytobenthos in the following period in Norway. Cooperation was continuous, particularly through email communication. A personal meeting took place during a weekly sampling in June 2015, and a workshop in January 2015 in Spain. Many communications (ca. 10x) took place in the form of skype. The role of a partner in the project was crucial, because the analysis of phytobenthos is not available in the Czech Republic, NIVA is one of the few world centers that have this knowledge. To analyze the effect of acidification on the composition of phytobenthos, long-term and current data on the chemistry of water from the GEOMON basin were used. The cooperation was beneficial for both parties – the Project Promoter has obtained the missing data on the impact of acidification on water ecology, and NIVA has been given the opportunity to test its methods on highly acidified waters not occurring in Norway. The entire indicator for which the Norwegian partner was responsible was filled with the end of the project by publishing a database of found phytobenthos species on the project website and publications in the impacted Hydrobiologia journal.