Acid Rain Affects Ocean Life And Ecosystems

Acid deposition can come in two forms, dry and wet. Wet deposition is when the acid falls in the form of fog, snow or other precipitation. Dry deposition is found in dry areas where it does not precipitate often. In these areas the chemicals fall as dust or smoke, and stick to whatever they land on. Acid deposition can be result to both natural and manmade sources. Natural sources of acid deposition include electrical storms, volcanoes, and decaying vegetation. Man-made emissions, from power plants that burn fossil fuels are released into the atmosphere as nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). These elements react to oxygen, water, and other gasses in the atmosphere in order to form acidic compounds. These acidic compounds then fall in either a wet or dry form. Acid rain can have a potentially devastating effects on the ecosystem it falls on. When acid rain hits the ground, it faces a natural buffer in the soil often in the form of limestone and calcium carbonate. The water will then travel into either a stream or a lake, where it affects fish. If the fallen rain has a pH at or below 5 undesirable species invade, often in the form of mosses or plankton. The top layer of water becomes too acidic for the inhabitants reproductive cycle to work properly, slowly killing off the

Acidity of an ecosystem, measured in pH, is a crucial factor to the survival of a species in an ecosystem. Altering it can have result in dramatically negative effects, in spite of the fact that pH of an ecosystem has been dramatically changed over a relatively short period of time due to various human activities. For example, acid rain is a major environmental problem that is caused by human-made pollution. When fossil fuels are burnt to get energy, pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides get mixed into the rainwater and eventually are evaporated into the atmosphere. These gases enter the atmosphere, and mix with water in the water cycle to form an acidic mixture of water and gases. This water falls in the form of acid rain, which

Acid rain is rain that has been made acidic by certain pollutants in the air and has low pH levels that can harm the environment. It is a type of acid deposition that can appear in many forms such as, wet deposition, which can be rain, sleet snow or fog that is more acidic than normal, and dry deposition, where gases and dust particles become acidic. (Epa.gov) Acid deposition in wet and dry forms, falls on buildings, cars and trees and makes lakes acidic, which then leads to the danger of plant and animal life. Dry acid deposition though, can be inhaled by humans, which can then cause health problems. (Epa.gov)

Acid deposition effects water systems because it lowers the pH in the water, creating adverse effects. More Acidic water will also more readily absorb aluminum leached from soil runoff. The combination of aluminum and acidic water is very harmful to many species. When biomagnification occurs many species will die off resulting in less biodiversity in the water system. Dead or dying trees is a common sight with acid deposition in effect. Acid rain leaches aluminum from the soil, doing so sucking the nutrients from the tree and causing death. At high elevation acidic fog, or clouds can strip the nutrients from the trees foliage’ causing them to lose leaves and die. The trees are also less able to absorb sunlight, and with that will not be able to achieve photosynthesis. As well as rural areas, urban areas also get affected. If buildings are made out of marble or limestone, the stone will begin to peel and chip away over time. This is possible because when the main crust chips away underneath is something composed of gypsum. A mineral that forms from the reaction between calcite, water, and sulfuric acid. This mineral can be slowly eaten away and destroyed by acid

However, the more basic solution (sodium bicarbonate) also had a negative impact on the germination of the radish seeds. Thus, a better a hypothesis would have been that a solution that is too basic or too acidic would have a negative impact on the germination of radish seeds. The data shows how specific plants have specific pH ranges in which they can flourish. This means that the radish seeds cannot flourish in a pH range that is too basic or too acidic. These results give an inside look on the effect acid rain is having on our environment. According to Woodfall (2017), acid rain impacts lakes, wetlands, other aquatic environments and forests. The acidic rain causes waters to become acidic which in turn impacts the animals living within the water. Even though some of the aquatic animals may be able to cope with the changes in acidity this does not mean that the animals that feed on them will. The effect of the acid rain slowly works its way up the food chain impacting more than just the aquatic animals. Also, acid rain affects forests. It robs soil of nutrients and releases aluminum into the soil thus making it hard for the trees to take in the water they need to stay alive. Acid rain leaves trees unable to protect themselves from temperature changes, its ability to reproduce, insects and

Ocean Acidification is affecting our life more than we ever thought it would be able to. When people first think about oceans, they don’t see the diversity of life that is in there or how much we depend on those organisms and the ocean itself. We only see this ginormous body of water, where some feel like it’s not a big deal if anything happens to it. Ocean acidification (as defined by NOAA) is “ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth’s oceans, cause by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this then creates an acid”. Each year the ocean absorbs at least 25-30% of all CO2 from human activity. This can be a huge threat to the diversity of the ocean and the benefits it provides to society. The rate continues to go up, more so than anyone would have thought it would and as these continue to raise the risks we are facing could be bigger than we thought and we could soon be facing a mass extinction.

• Acid rain causes damages to vegetation. o Causes dieback of red spruce by decreasing their tolerance to cold. o Causes damage to sugar maple. • NAPAP was formed in 1980 to help resolve the acid rain policy debate • Estimation of economic impacts and the costs and benefits of controlling acid rain has been an issue in both Europe and the United States I will use this source to support my explanation of acid deposition and its causes. Citation:

The first major effect that Ocean Acidification has is the reduction of pH levels in the ocean. PH is very important in this case because it generally determines how acidic water is. The normal pH balance of water is 7. When Ocean Acidification occurs the pH levels in the ocean can dip below 7 therefore increasing the acidity of the water. Even though humans may be able to adapt to these kind of changes other species in the ocean cannot. Scientists estimate that by the end of this century Ocean Acidification can consequently cause the acidity of ocean water to increase by nearly 150%. That level of acidic water hasn't been seen or thrived in for almost 20 million years. Before major industries were created increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, the ocean relied on minerals carried into the ocean by rivers and lakes to balance out pH levels. Now that humans are producing too much Co2 for the atmosphere to handle the rivers and lakes can not carry enough minerals to keep pH in balance. If pH levels continue to fall major populations that call the ocean home will no longer exist. All it

First is the acidification. Chemical reactions involving air pollutants can create acidic compounds. Sometimes, when an air pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with the water droplets that make up clouds, the water droplets become acidic, forming acid rain. Acid rain can kill trees and harm animals, fish, and other wildlife. When acid rain gets into soils, it makes the soil become unfit for many living things due to the change of nutrition. Acid rain also changes the chemistry of the water, harming aquatic life and even people’s health.

Acid rain causes a cascade of effects that harm or kill individual fish, reduce fish population numbers, completely eliminate fish species from a water body, and decrease biodiversity. As acid rain flows through soils in a watershed, aluminum is released from soils into the lakes and streams located in that watershed. So, as pH in a lake or stream decreases, aluminum levels increase. Both low pH and increased aluminum levels are directly toxic to fish. In addition, low pH and increased aluminum levels cause chronic stress that may not kill individual fish, but leads to lower body weight and smaller size and makes fish less able to compete for food and habitat. Acid rain can hurt the environment in many ways one that gets affected by acid rain

You can collect data by observing the frogs. The acid rain is present in the environment, and that is evident through the fact that frog's skin absorbs the acidity of the rainfall. If acid rain is there, this may be the negative factor affecting all the animals and trees.

Acid rain can weaken a tree or plant’s natural defenses. It harms the soil and all organisms that need it to survive because it takes away important soil nutrients such as calcium and magnesium. When a tree’s defenses are down, it makes them more susceptible to diseases and pests. Acid rain can also deposit nitrates. Nitrogen runoff can cause eutrophication. Eutrophication is when runoff nitrogen goes into an ocean ecosystem and causes algae to grow quicker. This is called an algal bloom and it blocks sunlight from getting to the plants causing a “dead zone.” This means no organisms will be able to live there anymore. Finally, acid rain can cause the wearing away or deterioration of buildings and many other things built of stone. It does not affect humans directly. It does however harm them because of the two main chemicals involved, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. When inhaled, they have been shown to cause some illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis. Some organisms are more damaged by acid rain than others, but most organisms are harmed when there are high concentrations of acid rain in the area/ecosystem they live in. Acid rain can harm an environment and humans negatively and has several effects on the Earth. Many places around the world have been affected by acid rain. 3 main places are eastern Europe and eastern United States along with some areas of China and Taiwan. In many places where there have been great effects

Burning of fossil fuel in industries and transport sections, industrialization and urbanization have led to increase concentration of gaseous and particulate pollutants in the atmosphere leading to air pollution. The increased used to tall stacks for power plants and industries; atmospheric emissions are being transported regionally and even globally. Rain is one of the essential ingredients for human life. Although rain is naturally acidic, it is being increasingly acidified by pollution from homes, factories, power stations and cars. The term used to describe the problem is "acid rain". Acid rain has become a major environmental concern for several decades, it has broad economic, social and medical implications and has been called unseen plague of industrial age. The major components of acid rain is sulphur dioxide, sulphur trioxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide dissolves in rain. These components deposited as dry and wet depositions. One obvious consequence of acid rain is corrosive effect on exposed stone and metal structures, but there are also many biological that are not obvious. However, like many environmental problems, acid deposition is caused by accumulative actions of millions of individual people. It may not been seem as though acid rain is much as an issue, but it can cause more than you can imagine.

Pollution often releases chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the air that react with the other chemicals to create acid rain. Because water is so essential to different organisms, the acidification of water affects other biochemical processes and various aspects of our environment, including agriculture, tree damage at high elevations, and acidification of the soil. (US Environmental Protection Agency) These effects negatively impact other organisms, such as plants that can only grow in a specific range of pH’s, which could lead to ion imbalances in the soil, further altering the biochemistry. (Nie et al. 2013) Lack of plant growth would cause herbivores to die out, causing carnivores to die out and shifting the entire food web, which could have drastic results in the biosphere. Looking at soil acidification specifically, it has been shown that earthworms are extremely important for soil chemistry as they filter and replenish nutrients into the soil. (Beck et al. 2005) They also affect soil enzyme activity, due to the microbes living in their guts. (Tica et al. 2013)

     Acid rain also soaks into ground and dissolves nutrients from the soil. When the plants call upon these nutrients to grow, the absence kills the vegetation. Over a short period of time plants begin