Keynote Presentations from the 2nd AVEC International Summer School, Peyresq, 18-30 September 2005


Speaker: Mark Sutton
ms<at>ceh.ac.uk
Atmospheric Sciences Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) (Edinburgh Research Station), Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland, UK, EH26 0QB

Title of the talk: Landscape variability and impacts of ammonia in relation to the Habitats Directive (pdf: 20MB)



Biosketch

Mark’s research interests reflect a tension between simultaneously being a specialist and generalist in relation to the emissions, dispersion, deposition and environmental impacts of air pollution. He tries to resolve this by focusing on the problem of atmospheric ammonia, bearing in mind the interactions with other nitrogen and carbon compounds. A key theme is the measurement and modelling of gaseous and particulate ammonia fluxes between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. He is involved in upscaling these models and measurements to the regional and European scale, including the development of atmospheric transport and chemistry models for ammonia, implementation of ammonia and nitrogen air monitoring networks, and the development of practical bioindicators to assess the impact of ammonia and N deposition.

A particular interest is analysis at the landscape scale. Scientists quantifying atmospheric pollutant fluxes typically go straight from the field-scale to the regional-scale, which misses the detailed lateral interactions that occur between different ecosystems and land management units. Mark is therefore engaged in developing integrated, landscape-level models. These aim to quantify the field, farm, ecosystem, catchment and local atmospheric dispersion fluxes and assess the impacts and trade-offs for ammonia and other forms of nitrogen and carbon (nitrates, nitrous oxide emissions, methane etc.).

Based on this ongoing research background, Mark provides advice to the UK government and conservation agencies on the development of air pollution policies and the formulation of impact assessment procedures. Mark collaborates widely in EU research. He has coordinated two EU projects on ammonia fluxes (EXAMINE and GRAMINAE), is a member of the AVEC Steering Committee, and is currently leading a new integrated project on the European nitrogen problem (NitroEurope IP).


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