AMARILLO, Texas, June 30 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have determined air monitoring can be used to help anticipate possible ecosystem changes.
Texas A&M University Associate Professor Brent Auvermann said he and his colleagues have found when rain settles the atmosphere and brings air pollutants to the ground, it can have a lasting effect on ecosystems -- sometimes hundreds of miles away.
Auvermann is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies to see what is settling from the skies above the Texas Panhandle.
"The question we're trying to help answer is: 'Are we altering ecosystems by dumping pollutants into the atmosphere that will come out in the form of wet or dry deposition?'" Auvermann said.
He noted all ecosystems receive some atmospheric inputs, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. But when the nutrient load changes, it can change the competitive ability of a species and allow different ones to thrive where they once were not competitive. The effects extend from major animal life such as deer to the smallest bacteria.
"This kind of environmental monitoring is where it all comes together: meteorology, chemistry, physics, biology and ecology," he said. "It's all here."
