Trace Gases and Particles in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer at the Waldstein Site: Present State and Historic Trends

Abstract

The atmosphere plays a key role in ecosystem functioning. Its general status and development is mainly driven by large-scale factors and processes. Climate change as a global and hemispherical phenomenon (macro-scale) is an example. On smaller scales, the atmosphere interacts intensively with terrestrial ecosystems, and thus plays a key role in ecosystem processes. An important example is the input of liquid water through precipitation, which is mainly driven by regional scale (meso-scale) processes. On even smaller scales (micro-scales), the exchange of nutrients and pollutants between the biosphere and the atmosphere strongly affects either one. Therefore, the interaction between the atmospheric boundary layer and the vegetation is a main focus of ecosystem research. Several chapters in this book deal with related topics, such as turbulent exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapor (Chap. 9), ozone (Chap. 12), biogenic volatile organic compounds (Chap. 13), deposition of nutrients such as nitrogen, as quantified through ecosystem balance methods (Chap. 14), and more. This chapter reviews recent and historic data of gas and particulate concentrations from the Bayreuth Institute for Terrestrial Ecosystem Research (BITÖK) experimental research site Waldstein in the Fichtelgebirge mountain range. For further details concerning applied techniques, data structure and quality control strategies, the interested reader is referred to Klemm and Lange (1999)and Held et al. (2002a, b).