Data-availability and potential locations to study the influence of N-deposition and climate on European coastal dune-ecosystems: Feasibility study

In 2019 the DPWE water companies (Dunea, PWN, Waternet, Evides) and KWR started a project on the “Consequences of climate change and atmospheric deposition on nature targets and groundwater recharge of dry dunes”. The study will analyse how dune vegetation responds to both climate change and N-deposition. In order to trace the effects, field data will be used of several coastal dune areas in Europe, representing major gradients in climate and N-deposition. The geographical focus is the coastal dunes in NW-Europe (UK, France, Flanders, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark Poland, and Lithuania.
The first year of this study was aimed at identification of locations with different (high/ low) levels of N- deposition and temperature. Also, data availability was assessed as well as the willingness of European partner organisations to collaborate in the study. This report reflects the results of the first year of the study and is intended to support a go/ no go decision whether to continue with the remaining part of the study.
This report is organised as follows. First, an overview is given of the existing climate and N-deposition gradients in Europe (chapter 2). Then we zoom into the potential locations and discuss whether they harbour enough directly available data and cover the range of climate, N-deposition and calcareous levels (chapter 3). Next, we present a method to fill gaps in data about N-deposition (chapter 4). Finally, we draw conclusions on the feasibility of a next project phase.