SANA-Project results and PIK contributions
K. Bellmann, M. Erhard, M. Flechsig, R. Grote, F. Suckow (March 1998)
SANA (‘Sanierung der Atmosphäre über den neuen Bundensländern’) was a joint scientific programme to assess tropospheric processes and ecological impacts under the rapid change of air pollution emission in the former GDR (East Germany) since the late ‘80s. It was applied for after the German reunification in 1990 and first investigations started shortly thereafter. The main investigations took place during the years 1993 to 1995.
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research was responsible for co-ordinating the activities of the ecological investigations within this programme. Furthermore, the modelling of ecological impacts was executed by PIK scientists on the basis of ecological investigations, mainly executed by the Centre of Agricultural Landscape and Land Use Science (ZALF), and the Technical University in Cottbus (BTUC). The modelling task included the representation of physical, chemical and physiological processes in Scots Pine (Pinus sylv. L.) forests as well as the extrapolation of the results to the regional level, considering different air pollution and climate scenarios.
This report includes the final project results of the two groups at PIK, involved in the project: Firstly, the newly developed physiologically-based forest growth model FORSANA was applied for the first time to three pine stands, which differed largely in their air pollution and deposition history. (The evaluation of the model is presented in PIK Report 32). The model was able to explain the growth during the last decades of at least two of the three stands from the climatic and deposition conditions at the sites. The third site was shown to be exceptional with respect to its relation between dimension and age, and was supposed to be exposed to major disturbances in the past, which could not be accounted for by the model.
To extrapolate from the stand level to the regional level, FORSANA was initialised with spatially explicit data from forestry inventory and soil maps. Simulations were executed with measured weather records and regional distributions of deposition and air pollution, which were estimated on the basis of emission inventories and wind directions. Different assumptions about the development of air pollution had been applied to investigate different pollution abatement strategies. The results showed that a positive effect can be expected from the actual emission reductions close the main centres of emission, but showed also that this effect is decreasing with increasing distance from the emission source.
Two additional papers are presented in this report, to give a more detailed insight in the history and aims of the joint project, and to present an overview of the integrated results of the ecological investigations.
All four presented papers are submitted to the journal ‘Nutrients in ecosystems’, which shall be part of a special edition, presenting results from all ecological investigations within the SANA project, including modelling results.
Bellmann, K., Grote, R.: The History of SANA - Introduction to the Project
Grote, R., Bellmann, K.: Synopsis of SANA - An integrated Analysis of the Results
Grote, R., Suckow, F., Bellmann, K.: Modelling of carbon-, nitrogen-, and water balances in pine stands under changing air pollution and deposition
Erhard, M., Flechsig, M.: A landscape model for the investigation of pollution effects on the dynamics of pine forest ecosystems (Pinus sylvestris L.)
