Vegetation and air pollution. Spatial and temporal aspects of sampling in environmental monitoring

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bråkenhielm, Sven¹

Note: [1] Sven Bråkenhielm is senior administrative officer at the National Environmental Protection Board of Sweden. He was born in 1938, educated as secondary school teacher in English, Biology and Geography and graduated in Ecological Botany on a long-term study “Vegetation Dynamics of Afforested Farmland” in 1977. He took part in the Swedish Coniferous Forest Biome Project in the seventies. At the Environmental Protection Board he has led a national inventory of old-growth forests for conservation purposes and planned and established the vegetation subprogramme of the National Environment Monitoring Programme (PMK), which he is now in charge of.

Abstract: The aim of the vegetation subprogramme of the permanent Swedish Environmental Monitoring Programme (PMK) is to assess effects of anthropogenic atmospheric changes using vegetation as indicator. It is operated in about twenty protected natural areas all over the country, covering several physiographic gradients including air pollution, and most natural ecosystem types. Ideally, small watershed basins are the most adequate areas for this purpose. The vegetation subprogramme has a broad scope covering plant communities, vegetation layers, species populations, and plant organs that are observed at various frequencies. Sampling is done on a basis of a combination of intensive and frequent observations on a few subjectively chosen plots and less intensive, less frequent observations on several objectively selected plots. All practical details are adjusted to the long-term operation envisaged. A major problem is to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic effects.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1988-5304

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 239-247, 1988