Biogeochemical Monitoring in Small Catchments: Refereed papers from BIOGEOMON, The Symposium on Ecosystem Behaviour: Evaluation of Integrated Monitoring in Small Catchments held in Prague, Czech

This Special Issue of Water, Air and Soil Pollution offers original contributions from BIOGEOMON, an international symposium on ecosystem behavior and the evaluation of integrated monitoring of small catchments, held in Prague, Czech Republic, in September 1993. The meeting attracted nearly 200 scientists from 27 countries on five continents. BIOGEOMON was a loose continuation of another international meeting, GEOMON, which was held in Prague in 1987. Both sym­ posia provided a forum for the discussion of ideas on environmental problems in western and eastern Europe, with important contributions from the American continent. With the dramatic collapse of the iron curtain, it was our hope that more so than GEOMON, BIOGEOMON would provide opportunities for the free exchange of ideas, fostering the development of research collaborations between its participants. With international openness comes the increasing realization that every indus­ trialized nation has its own legacy of environmental degradation. Anthropogenic impacts differ in severity and scale; air and water transport of pollutants transform local impacts into regional and global ones, ignoring political boundaries and eco­ nomic differences. Environmental consequences of anthropogenic activities often are detectable at the ecosystem level. Thus, the challenge of ecosystem science, and to the individuals who practice it, is to develop a comprehensive understanding of ecosystem function in the past and at present, and to apply such understanding toward minimizing future insults to the local, regional, and global environment.

Table of Contents:
I Monitoring.- Long-Term Development of Element Budgets in a Norway Spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) Forest of the German Soiling Area.- Ion Mass Budgets for Small Forested Catchments in Finland.- Mid-Term Trends in Acid Precipitation, Streamwater Chemistry and Element Budgets in the Strengbach Catchment (Vosges Mountains, France).- Spatial and Temporal Variability of Algal and Lichen Epiphytes on Trees in Relation to Pollutant Deposition in Sweden.- Comparison of Field Methods in Vegetation Monitoring.- Historical Rates of Atmospheric Pb Depositon Using 210Pb Dated Peat Cores: Corroboration, Computation, and Interpretation.- II Catchments Manipulations and Biogeochemical Studies.- Solute Fluxes and Sulfur Cycling in Forested Catchments in SW Germany as Influenced by Experimental (NH4)2SO4 Treatments.- Randomized Intervention Analysis of the Response of the West Bear Brook Watershed, Maine to Chemical Manipulation.- Stream Chemistry Impacts of Conifer Harvesting in Welsh Catchments.- Biotic and Abiotic Processes Controlling Water Chemistry During Snowmelt at Rabbit Ears Pass, Rocky Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A.- The Relationship Between Dissolved Organic Matter and Percolation Water Chemistry in Northern Finland.- Retention and Mobility of Cations in a Small Peatland: Trends and Mechanisms.- III Isotopes as Tracers.- Sulfur Isotope Dynamics in a High-Elevation Catchment, West Glacier Lake, Wyoming.- Transformation of Simulated Wet Sulfate Deposition in Forest Soils Assessed by a Core Experiment Using Stable Sulfur Isotopes.- Sulfur and Oxygen Isotope Ratios in Sulfate During an Acidification Reversal Study at Lake Gårdsjön, Western Sweden.- ?34S, ?18O, and ?D in Shallow Groundwater: Tracing Anthropogenic Sulfate and Accompanying Groundwater/Rock Interactions.-Modeling Excess Sulfur Deposition on Wetland Soils Using Stable Sulfur Isotopes.- The Use of Natural Strontium Isotopes as Tracers in Environmental Studies.- IV Modeling.- Modeling Perspective of the Deforestation Impact in Stream Water Quality of Small Preserved Forested Areas in the Amazonian Rainforest.- Long-Term Sulfate Dynamics at Lange Bramke (Harz) Used for Testing Two Acidification Models.- Uncertainties in Long-Term Predictions of Forest Soil Acidification Due to Neglecting Seasonal Variability.- Developing a Kinetic Alternative in Modeling Soil Aluminium.- Three-Component Model of Runoff Generation, Lysina Catchment, Czech Republic.- Measurements and Modeling of Tracer Transport in a Sandy Soil.- Epilogue.- List of reviewers.- Author Index.