Integrated Assessment of Impacts of Atmospheric Deposition and Climate Change on Forest Ecosystem Services in Europe

Abstract

24.1 Introduction Atmospheric deposition, especially of N, affects the quality of forest soils and ser-vices that forests provide, such as the habitat function for plant species and carbon sequestration through wood production. The latter can contribute to the mitigation of impacts of climate change. The concept of ecosystem services is already well es-tablished, but the linkage between N deposition and those services is relatively new. Nitrogen deposition may cause both beneficial and adverse impacts, depending on the level of N input and the type of service analysed. Until now, most of the focus in research has been on N critical loads in view of impacts on plant species diversity. Limited insight is available on physiological optimal N deposition that maximizes forest growth while safeguarding an 'acceptable' impact on plant species diversity. The Concept of Ecosystem Services: Ecosystems provide services that are vital to human health and livelihood. Since the mid-1960s and early 1970s (e.g. Helliwell 1969), an increasing amount of information is being collected on the ecological and socio-economic value of goods and services provided by natural and semi-natural ecosystems to human society (see for example Costanza et al. 1997; Costanza et al. 2014; De Groot et al. 2002; De Groot et al. 2010; TEEB 2010). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has made a distinction in provisioning services, regulating services, supporting services and cultural services (Millennium Ecosystem Assess-ment 2005). Provisioning services are the products obtained from ecosystems, spe-cifically food, fibre and wood/fuel, and also the provision of fresh water. Regulating services include the regulation of climate (carbon sequestration), the buffering and