The Cadillac and Dorr Mountains as viewed from the summit of Gorham Ridge, Acadia National Park, Maine.

The Cadillac and Dorr Mountains as viewed from the summit of Gorham Ridge, Acadia National Park, Maine. A recent study that included Acadia National Park found that atmospheric deposition varies greatly over complex terrain and is controlled primarily by elevation and vegetation type. Atmospheric deposition is an important source of nutrients and pollutants to ecosystems. There is a need for reliable, spatially explicit estimates of the atmospheric deposition of pollutants and nutrients for use in policy decisions and the calculations of nutrient budgets. Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur is important in critical environmental and scientific issues, yet current estimates of total deposition have large uncertainties, particularly across heterogeneous landscapes such as mountains. This photograph originally appeared on the cover of Ecological Applications (16:4) in August of 2006.