Gene Likes gave a presentation with this title today. He has been conducting research on acid rain ever since 1960s and just got funding for another 50 years if I heard him correctly (beauty of the LTER).
Here are a couple of highlights from his talk:
1. The importance of long-term ecological research.
We don't hear much of acid rain nowadays. But its long term impacts linger. Likens gave an example of how soil-Ca depletion due to acid rain has been affecting Ca content in forest floor, forest biomass, number of bird species (Juice et al. 2006).
2. Watch Nitrate!
Liken's 40+ years' data showed sulfate has been decreasing over time, with two prominent plummets in after Clear Air Act (1970) and its amendment (1990) issued. But both regulations only aimed at sulfate-related pollution, as a result, nitrate has been increasing!
I cannot help wondering if we are making the same mistake. People equate CO2 with global warming and ignore other GHGs, e.g. Methane is 60 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (but it only remains in the atmosphere for about ten years and so looses it's greenhouse effect quickly compared to CO2 which remains in the atmosphere for 100 years).
Speaking of global warming. I was a bit surprised that Likens didn't mention anything about it in his presentation. Just today a shocking news was "Amazon doomed too much by clean air".
References:
Title: Response of sugar maple to calcium addition to Northern Hardwood Forest
Author(s): Juice, SM; Fahey, TJ; Siccama, TG, et al.
Source: ECOLOGY Volume: 87 Pages: 1267-1280 Published: 2006
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