The interception and retention of aerosols by vegetation

The transport of an aerosol from its deposition over a grassland canopy to its fate among foragable vegetation is simulated by a filtration model. The canopy is depicted as a uniform filter which intercepts, retains and releases deposited material analogously to chromatographic transport through an ion-exchange column; the filtration properties are constant, and severe environmental excursions, therefore, not accommodated. The model parameters, which characterize the mechanical and metabolic interactions between deposit and canopy, are determined by fitting the model to available experimental data: for depositing aqueous sprays, consistent parameterizations are so obtainable; for particulate deposits, individual model fits are good, but model validation is hindered by the sparsity and incompleteness of analysable data. (author)