Average total acid deposition, 1995-97 lichens - very sensitive to air pollution Industrial complex - source of atmospheric pollution

Dr Jane Hall

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Environment Centre Wales
Deiniol Road
Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW
Tel: +44 (0)1248 374511
Fax: +44 (0)1248 362133
E-mail: Dr Jane Hall
 

Research interests

I have been interested in the effects of pollutants on terrestrial and freshwater habitats since the early 1980s, from studies into freshwater acidification at the catchment scale to assessing the potential impacts of acid, nitrogen and heavy metal deposition at the national scale.

I was involved in the development of the first acidity critical load maps for the UK in the early 1990s and have since been continually involved in the development of critical load methodologies for acidity, eutrophication and heavy metals. Critical loads are an effects-based tool for assessing the sensitivity of terrestrial and freshwater habitats to the harmful effects of these pollutants, and for examining the potential impacts of current and future deposition scenarios. To date critical loads have been adopted in the development of national (eg, Defra’s Air Quality Strategy) and international (eg, Protocols of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP)) policies to abate the emissions of sulphur and nitrogen. Since 1994 I have been the Head of the UK National Focal Centre for Critical Loads Modelling and Mapping (a role funded by Defra) representing the UK at meetings of the CLRTAP International Cooperative Programme on Modelling and Mapping. Regular Status Reports are produced and published on the National Focal Centre web site (http://critloads.ceh.ac.uk) providing transparency of the data and methods used in the UK for the calculation of national critical loads.

More recently I have been involved in developing methods for determining appropriate critical loads at the site-specific scale. This work is aimed at providing the Environment Agency and Conservation Agencies with a practical methodology for assessing the threats posed to designated sites from acidification and eutrophication. The national scale critical load maps are based on national scale databases and as such are largely inappropriate for application at the site-specific scale. The challenges in this area of work are:

  • Finding a way to bridge the gap between the problems of using the national scale data and the lack of site-specific data.
  • Finding method(s) that will work on the incomplete data available at the site level.
  • Developing a method that is both useable and practical and easy for the non-expert to apply.

Brief CV

  • 2000-2005: SSO, Critical Loads research; Group Head from 2003
  • 1993-2000: HSO, Critical Loads research; Head of UK National Focal Centre
  • 1987-1993: SO, Catchment Classification; Critical Loads research from 1989
  • 1983-1987: ASO, Aluminium speciation in acidified waters
  • 1980-1983: ASO, Analytical Chemistry, CEH (formerly ITE) Monks Wood

Recent Publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

2004 and Earlier

Langan, S.J., Hall, J., Reynolds, B., Broadmeadow, M., Hornung, M. & Cresser, M.S. 2004. The development of an approach to assess critical loads of acidity for woodland habitats in Great Britain. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 8, 355-365.

Oxley, T., ApSimon, H., Dore, A., Sutton, M., Hall, J., Heywood, E., Gonzales del Campo, T. & Warren, R. 2003. The UK Integrated Assessment Model, UKIAM: A national scale approach to the analysis of strategies for abatement of atmospheric pollutants under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. Integrated Assessment, 4, 236-249.

Hall, J.R., Reynolds, B., Sparks, T., Weidemann, A., Thornton, I. & McGrath, S. 2001. The relationship between topsoil and stream sediment heavy metal concentrations and acidification. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 130, 1067-1072.
Hall, J., Hornung, M., Kennedy, F., Langan, S., Reynolds, B. & Aherne, J. 2001. Investigating the uncertainties in the Simple Mass Balance equation for acidity critical loads for terrestrial ecosystems. Water, Air and Soil Pollution: Focus 1: 43-56.

Hall, J., Reynolds, B., Aherne, J. & Hornung, M. 2001. The importance of selecting appropriate criteria for calculating acidity critical loads for terrestrial ecosystems using the Simple Mass Balance equation. Water, Air and Soil Pollution: Focus 1: 29-41.