Context-dependent environmental quality standards of soil nitrate for terrestrial plant communities

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 181; pp. 681 - 686
• Main Authors: van Goethem, Thomas M.W.J., Schipper, Aafke M., Wamelink, G.W. Wieger, Huijbregts, Mark A.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2016; Academic Press Ltd
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Ecosystem vulnerability; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental Monitoring - standards; Environmental quality; Flowers & plants; Forests; Grassland; Grasslands; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Interaction effects; Netherlands; Nitrate; Nitrates; Nitrates - analysis; Plants; Quality standards; Quantile regression; Red List species; Regression Analysis; Soil - chemistry; Soils; Species richness; Terrestrial ecosystems; Netherlands; Ecosystem vulnerability; Grasslands; Forests; Interaction effects; Nitrate; pH; Quantile regression; Species richness; Red List species
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.08.037

Environmental quality standards (EQS) specify the maximum permissible concentration or level of a specific environmental stressor. Here, a procedure is proposed to derive EQS that are specific to a representative species pool and conditional on confounding environmental factors. To illustrate the procedure, a dataset was used with plant species richness observations of grasslands and forests and accompanying soil nitrate-N and pH measurements collected from 981 sampling sites in the Netherlands. Species richness was related to soil nitrate-N and pH with quantile regression allowing for interaction effects. The resulting regression models were used to derive EQS for nitrate conditional on pH, quantified as the nitrate-N concentrations at a specific pH level corresponding with a species richness equal to 95% of the species pool, for both grasslands and forest communities. The EQS varied between 1.8 mg/kg nitrate-N at pH 9–65 mg/kg nitrate-N at pH 4. EQS for forests and grasslands were similar, but EQS based on Red List species richness were considerably lower (more stringent) than those based on overall species richness, particularly at high pH levels. The results indicate that both natural background pH conditions and Red List species are important factors to consider in the derivation of EQS for soil nitrate-N for terrestrial ecosystems. •We developed context-dependent environmental quality standards.•EQS were derived with quantile regression based on field-data.•Natural background pH conditions are important when deriving EQS for NO3.•Red list species are important to consider when deriving EQS for NO3. Both natural background pH conditions and Red List species are important factors to consider in the derivation of environmental quality standards for nitrate for terrestrial ecosystems.