Identification

Title

Ammonia concentrations from high-elevation Himalayan forests and a Sri Lankan tropical forest, 2022-2024

Abstract

[This dataset is embargoed until April 1, 2026]. The dataset contains field measurements of atmospheric ammonia under forest canopies in the Himalayas in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan and in a tropical forest in Sri Lanka between 2022 and 2024. Monthly mean atmospheric ammonia concentrations are provided from 33 sites across the five countries. This dataset provides the first ever empirical measurements of ammonia from South Asian forests and can be used to estimate ecological impact, inform policy decisions, validate atmospheric chemistry transport models and satellite data and design future air quality and ecological monitoring in the region. The ammonia concentration data was collected monthly by deploying passive citric acid-coated samplers at the study locations. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/9c4aee69-3693-4f18-97c8-ff740045f3de

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/9c4aee69-3693-4f18-97c8-ff740045f3de

codeSpace

doi:

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere

Keywords

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

66.269

East bounding longitude

93.873

North bounding latitude

34.235

South bounding latitude

3.864

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2022-01-01

End position

2024-12-31

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-04-03

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Starting May 2022, triplicate sets of UKCEH Adapted Low-cost Passive High Absorption (ALPHA®) samplers were deployed under the forest canopy at sites buffered by at least 500 m of continuous forest on all sides. The exposed samplers were replaced with fresh ones at the end of each month. The exposed samplers from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka were analysed at the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, Chennai and samplers from Pakistan were analysed at UKCEH, Edinburgh using the salicylate method. Blank samplers for each period were also analysed. The analysis provides the concentration of ammonium ions absorbed by each sampler. This is further converted to atmospheric ammonia concentration using an uptake rate which determined annually in the UK by co-locating the ALPHA samplers with UKCEH DEnuder for Long-Term Atmospheric sampling (DELTA®) samplers at multiple UK sites. The monthly concentration at each site is calculated as the average of the concentration measured by each sampler in the triplicate set. Obvious outliers are removed before calculating the average. Further quality assurance is performed based on comments from site operators regarding physical damage to the sampler, wet sampler, etc.

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

explanation

Data format

name of format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Embargoed

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

If you reuse this data, you should cite: Deshpande, A., Ellis, C., Pradhan, S.P., Sharma, S., Asad, S.A., Tshering, D., Wangchuk, K., Chatterjee, S., Weerakoon, B., Nissanka, S.P., Ganguly, D., Prabhashwara, T., Duarte, F., Stephens, A., Iwanicka, A., Sutton, M.A., Jones, M.R. (2025). Ammonia concentrations from high-elevation Himalayan forests and a Sri Lankan tropical forest, 2022-2024. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/9c4aee69-3693-4f18-97c8-ff740045f3de

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

email address

enquiries@ceh.ac.uk

web address

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2095-1271

description: ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers.

function: information