Nitrogen source-receptor matrices and model results for eastern Canada

The long-range transport sulphur/nitrogen model of the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment Canada was used to compute nitrogen source-receptor matrices for 1980 at 12 receptor sites in eastern Canada and 3 in the eastern U.S.A. There were 40 emission regions used to produce the 40 × 15 matrices of concentration and deposition of nitrogen species. The model used nonlinear chemical reactions and the nonlinear effects could be estimated by running each emission region regions combined. For wet deposition the nonlinear effects were less than 10%. For the total annual deposition (wet and dry), the nonlinearity was less than 5%.At each receptor, the matrices showed the contribution to nitrogen concentration and deposition from each emission region. The Canadian contribution to nitrogen concentration/deposition was greatest at Gander, Newfoundland (60–70%) and least at Algoma, Ontario (7–12%). Of the total North American emissions, Canada contributed about 8–9%. Model results that were compared to the limited amount of observed data showed reasonably good agreement (within factors of 2–3).In spite of the model nonlinearities, deficiencies and uncertainties, these matrices provide a first quantitative estimate of the magnitude and relative contributions of Canadian and U.S. source regions to the nitrogen concentration and deposition at several receptors in eastern Canada.