Sulfur and nitrogen emissions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia from 1850 till 2000

The respective rates of SO2, NOx, and NH3 anthropogenic emissions in the former Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic and Slovakia (CS)) were <10, <5, and 33 mmol m−2 yr−1 in 1850, increased slowly until 1950 and rapidly in the 1950–1980 period, and peaked at 380, 180 and 80 mmol m−2 yr−1 in the 1980s. The emissions declined markedly after the political and economical changes in 1989 due to (1) restructuring of industry and farming in the early 1990s ( 35% decrease in energy production and 50–60% decrease in cattle numbers and fertilization rate of farmland), (2) sulfur emission controls, (3) changes in fuel supply, and (4) optimization of combustion regimes at stationary sources of NOx. The CS emission rates of SO2, NOx, and NH3 were 87%, 51%, and 44% lower, respectively, in 2000 than in 1985. Emissions of SO2 declined linearly throughout the 1990s (to 47 mmol m−2 yr−1 in 2000), while NOx and NH3 emissions declined rapidly during 1989–1994 and then slowly to 85 and 44 mmol m−2 yr−1, respectively, in 2000. Similar declines in SO2 and NOx emissions occurred in the entire central European region, while NH3 emission decreased less over a wider region due predominantly to more stable emission rates of NH3 in Germany. Emission rates of S and N compounds correlated tightly (P<0.001) with their deposition in the CS region.