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Science 5 August 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4610, pp. 520 - 525
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4610.520
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Articles

Acid Rain on Acid Soil: A New Perspective

Edward C. Krug 1 and Charles R. Frink 2

1 Assistant soil scientist in the Department of Soil and Water, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven 06504.
2 Chief of the Department of Soil and Water and vice director of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

Acid rain is widely believed to be responsible for acidifying soil and water in areas of North America and northern Europe. However, factors commonly considered to make landscapes susceptible to acidification by acid rain are the same factors long known to strongly acidify soils through the natural processes of soil formation. Recovery from extreme and widespread careless land use has also occurred in regions undergoing acidification. There is evidence that acidification by acid rain is superimposed on long-term acidification induced by changes in land use and consequent vegetative succession. Thus, the interactions of acid rain, acid soil, and vegetation need to be carefully examined on a watershed basis in assessing benefits expected from proposed reductions in emissions of oxides of sulfur and nitrogen.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Experimental Acidification Causes Soil Base-Cation Depletion at the Bear Brook Watershed in Maine.
I. J. Fernandez, L. E. Rustad, S. A. Norton, J. S. Kahl, and B. J. Cosby (2003)
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 67, 1909-1919
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Forest Soil Chemistry and Terrain Attributes in a Catskills Watershed.
C. E. Johnson, J. J. Ruiz-Méndez, and G. B. Lawrence (2000)
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 64, 1804-1814
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A palaeolimnological test of the influence of Norway spruce (Picea abies) immigration on lake-water acidity.
T. Korsman, T. Korsman, I. Renberg, and N. J. Anderson (1994)
The Holocene 4, 132-140
   Abstract »    PDF »
Environmental acidification: a review of surface water acidification during 1990.
A.C. Stevenson (1991)
Progress in Physical Geography 15, 164-172
   PDF »
Effects of Acid Rain on Freshwater Ecosystems.
D. W. Schindler and D. W. SCHINDLER (1988)
Science 239, 149-157
   Abstract »    PDF »
Chemical Wastes in our Atmosphere--An Ecological Crisis.
G. E. Likens (1987)
Organization Environment 1, 13-33
   Abstract »
Major, minor and trace element mobility in the acidic upland forested catchment of the upper River Severn, Mid Wales.
C. NEAL, C. J. SMITH, J. WALLS, and C. S. DUNN (1986)
Journal of the Geological Society 143, 635-648
   Abstract »    PDF »
Mineral weathering processes in podzolic soils on granitic materials and their implications for surface water acidification.
M. J. WILSON (1986)
Journal of the Geological Society 143, 691-697
   Abstract »    PDF »
Acid Rain and Soil Chemistry.
N. M. Johnson, N. M. JOHNSON, G. E. LIKENS, M. C. FELLER, and C. T. DRISCOLL (1984)
Science 225, 1424-1425
   PDF »


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