Baker, Gail A.; Harmon, Mark E.; Greene, Sarah E. 1987. A study of selected ecosystem processes potentially sensitive to airborne pollutants. In: Proceedings of the 3rd conference on science in the national parks; Fort Collins, CO. Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service: 20 p.
Natural variation of ecosystem processes must bedocumented in order to assess the impact of airborne
pollutants. The Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic NationalPark offers an opportunity to study ecosystem
processes in a relatively pollutant free
environment. The processes we selected for study are
sensitive to airborne pollutants and important
contributors to long-term ecosystem productivity.
They included lichen and moss productivity, litterfall and decay rates and conifer needle population
structure and retention times. Current seasonal
patterns and characteristics of these processes were
quantified. Each process is evaluated with regard to
its utility as an index for the effects of pollutantstress.