Chemical water quality in the Ba Catchment coastal zone – 2019
Within Pacific Small Island Developing States (Pacific SIDS), the ridge-to-reef (R2R) approach has emerged as a framework for monitoring river connectivity between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The study measured water quality, including pH and a range of other physical and chemical properties over 88.40 km of the Ba River in Fiji. The sampling design focused on measuring spatio-temporal variability in pH throughout the sugarcane season (April – August) with three rapid sampling periods (RSP1, 2 and 3) along the Ba River, together with continuous measurement of temperature and pH using stationary data loggers at two locations upstream and downstream of the sugar mill (April to August 2019). Spatial variability in pH and water quality was characterized before (RSP1 and RSP2) and during (RSP3) the sugarcane season. Mean pH measured before the sugarcane crushing season for RSP1 and RSP2 were 8.16 (± 0.49) and 8.20 (± 0.61) respectively. During the sugarcane crushing season (RSP3) mean pH declined by 3.06 units to 6.94 within 42 m downstream of the sugar mill (P < 0.001). The 3.06 unit decline in pH for RSP3 exceeded both the mean diurnal variation in pH of 0.39 and mean seasonal variation in pH of 2.01. This decline in pH could be a potential source of acidification to downstream coastal ecosystems with implications for coral reefs, biodiversity and fishery livelihoods.
A Global Database of Litterfall Mass, and Litter Pool Carbon and Nutrients
Measurement data of aboveground litterfall and littermass and litter carbon, nitrogen, and nutrient concentrations were extracted from 685 original literature sources and compiled into a comprehensive database to support the analysis of global patterns of carbon and nutrients in litterfall and litter pools. Data are included from sources dating from 1827 to 1997. The reported data include the literature reference, general site information (description, latitude, longitude, and elevation), site climate data (mean annual temperature and precipitation), site vegetation characteristics (management, stand age, ecosystem and vegetation-type codes), annual quantities of litterfall (by class, kg m-2 yr-1), litter pool mass (by class and litter layer, kg m-2), and concentrations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and base cations for the litterfall (g m-2 yr-1) and litter pool components (g m-2). The investigators intent was to compile a comprehensive data set of individual direct field measurements as reported by researchers. While the primary emphasis was on acquiring C data, measurements of N, P, and base cations were also obtained, although the database is sparse for elements other than C and N. Each of the 1,497 records in the database represents a measurement site. Replicate measurements were averaged according to conventions described in Section 5 and recorded for each site in the database. The sites were at 575 different locations.
Nitrogen deposition for the United States and Western Europe, 1978–1994
This data set contains data for wet and dry nitrogen-species deposition for the United States and Western Europe. Deposition data were acquired directly from monitoring programs in the United States and Europe for time periods from 1978-1994 for wet deposition and from 1989-1994 for dry deposition and evaluated using similar quality assurance criteria to ensure comparability. A standard geostatistical method (kriging) was used to interpolate data onto a 0.5 x 0.5 degree resolution map for wet and dry deposition.