1st Edition

Air Pollution and Its Impacts on U.S. National Parks

By Timothy J. Sullivan Copyright 2017
    682 Pages
    by CRC Press

    682 Pages 35 Color & 198 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    682 Pages 35 Color & 198 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    A variety of air pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere from human-caused and natural emissions sources throughout the United States and elsewhere. These contaminants impact sensitive natural resources in wilderness, including the national parks. The system of national parks in the United States is among our greatest assets. This book provides a compilation and synthesis of current scientific understanding regarding the causes and effects of these pollutants within national park lands. It describes pollutant emissions, deposition, and exposures; it identifies the critical (tipping point) loads of pollutant deposition at which adverse impacts are manifested.

    List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Acronyms and Abbreviations. Acknowledgments. Author. Introduction. Pollutant Exposure. Impacts. Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Appalachian Highlands Network. Shenandoah National Park and the Mid-Atlantic Network. Acadia National Park and the Northeast Temperate Network. South Florida/Caribbean Network. Great Lakes Network. Mammoth Cave National Park and the Cumberland Piedmont Network. Northern Colorado Plateau Network. The Grand Canyon and the Southern Colorado Plateau Network. Coast and Cascades Network. Klamath Network. Hawaii. Mojave Desert. Chihuahuan Desert. Sierra Nevada Network. Rocky Mountain and Glacier National Parks. Greater Yellowstone Network. Denali National Park and Central Alaska Network. Arctic Network Parks. Southeastern Alaska Network. Index.

    Biography

    Dr. Timothy Sullivan holds a B.A. in history from Stonehill College (1972), an M.A. in biology from Western State College, Colorado (1977), and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Oregon State University (1983) through an interdisciplinary program that included areas of focus in ecology, zoology, and environmental chemistry. He did his postdoctoral research at the Center for Industrial Research in Oslo, Norway on surface and ground water acidification, episodic hydrologic processes, and aluminum biogeochemistry. His expertise includes the effects of air pollution on aquatic and terrestrial resources, watershed analysis, critical loads, ecosystem services, nutrient cycling, aquatic acid/base chemistry, episodic processes controlling surface water chemistry, and environmental assessment. He has been President of E&S Environmental Chemistry, Inc. since 1988. He has served as project manager and/or lead author for a wide variety of projects that have synthesized for diverse audiences complex air and water pollution effects science. He was project manager of the effort to draft a scientific summary and Integrated Scientific Assessment (ISA) of the effects of nitrogen and sulfur oxides on terrestrial, transitional, and aquatic ecosystem for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in support of its review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). He was author of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) State of Science and Technology Report on past changes in surface

    "Dr Timothy Sullivan draws upon his long experience in the field of air pollution effects science and his thorough knowledge of research in the United States, Scandinavia, and throughout the world to provide an excellent review of the state of scientific understanding, including both the basic science and more advanced explanations. I highly recommend this book!"
    —Harald U. Sverdrup, University of Iceland

    "National Parks are treasured landscapes in the United States enjoyed by millions of people every year because they are protected, natural environments. However, while they are protected from local damage, they are under assault by external forces—the long range transport of air pollutants. The book, Air Pollution and Its Impacts on U.S. National Parks, does an excellent job of describing what these problems are and what has been and could be done to limit them."
    —James Galloway, University of Virginia, USA

    "The U.S. National Park system has often been described as our nation’s ‘crown jewels’. Stunning in their diversity, parks share the threat of being tarnished by an encroaching environmental issue – air pollution. Tim Sullivan does a masterful job of pulling together the rich literature on this topic into a single source. The book builds on a review of the scientific underpinnings of air pollution, including emissions, atmospheric transport, deposition, and environmental impacts, by presenting compelling case studies from parks across the country. Natural resources practitioners, students, and those in the general public who care about the fate of our National Parks will benefit from the insight from Tim Sullivan, who is an internationally recognized scientist."
    — Todd M. Scanlon, University of Virginia, USA