Integrated Monitoring in natural ecosystems (IM)

Integrated environmental monitoring in natural ecosystems (IM) focuses on monitoring the ecological effects of air pollution. The monitoring provides reliable data that can be used for a deeper understanding of ecosystem processes and for modelling and decision-making. Integrated environmental monitoring of ecosystems refers to the simultaneous measurement of the physical, chemical and biological properties of an ecosystem. In practice, this means that sampling and observations are coordinated in time and space. The extensive data generated by the programme is also important for observing the impact of climate change.

In the 1980s, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency selected some twenty sites representing different habitat types to monitor air pollution, mainly sulphur and nitrogen. They were all excluded from active land use, so that the effects of air pollution could be separated from natural variation with as little disturbance as possible. In the mid-1990s, the number of sites was reduced to four small, hydrologically well-defined forest catchments, located in different parts of the country's air pollution gradient. These four areas are still sampled and form the current integrated environmental monitoring programme. Today, the programme includes measurements of meteorology, hydrology, deposition, vegetation, soil biology, soil chemistry and soil, groundwater and runoff water chemistry.

The monitoring is part of the international Integrated Monitoring Programme, ICP IM, and is an important part of the ecosystem monitoring required by the EU Directive on air pollution emissions (National Emissions Ceilings Directive).

IM data are made available via several databases and in some cases from downloadable Excel files. More information can be found on the IM data webpage.