Evaluation of heavy metals in forest floors and topsoils of ICP Forests Level I plots

Heavy metals in ICPF Level I plots: Task Description

Forest floors are an archive for heavy metal contamination. Based on the recently combined LI soil dataset (1st and 2nd soil survey) the FSCC will conduct following tasks:

1. Map concentration levels of metals Zn, Pb, Ni, Cu, Cr, Cd in forest floors (FF) and topsoils across Europe for the 1st survey period (1985 – 1998)
2. Map concentration levels and pools of metals Zn, Pb, Ni, Cu, Cr, Cd and (partly) Hg in forest floors and topsoils across Europe for the 2nd survey period (2004-2008)
3. Map the difference in concentration levels between these survey events (detect changes for all available data of common plots)
4. Estimate and/or document natural background concentrations and anthropogenic input (deposition) for all level I plot
5. Develop an evaluation scheme (critical levels) at the EU level based on ecotoxicological risk assessment (by testing existing national systems)
6. Compare the heavy metals maps of FF contamination with the maps based on heavy metal concentrations in mosses (Harmens et al.2010,2012,2015; ICP Vegetation) to detect common regional hot spots.

Deliverables are:
- GIS based maps at EU Level in ESRI shape format (delivered at PCC)
- Report describing the datasets, the applied methods and all findings