Analysis of ambient ozone in a foothill area in the Western Carpathians

Abstract

This work analyses the ambient ozone concentrations measured during 1999–2008, parallel on two research plots differing in their vegetation cover (beech forest stand and open plot), situated in a rural area. There was detected a difference in the ozone concentration values between the two plots due to their spatial arrangement, but this difference was not significant. On the other hand, a noticeable statistically significant difference in ozone concentrations and differences in selected climatic variables were observed. The influence of average temperature and of rainfall sum was very significant, at p < 0.0001. The variability of the measured ambient ozone values ranged from 50.01% in the stand to 57.36% on the open plot. Ozone maxima occurred frequently, mainly after the year 2004. The increase in ozone concentrations, primarily in form of extreme events, means a serious risk for the environment.