Acid rain is rain that has become acidic, because of air pollutants in the atmosphere. Rain has a normal pH level of around 5-5.5 which is only slightly acidic. 7 on the pH scale is the neutral and anything below that is considered acidic. Acid rain has a pH level around 4 which is 10 times more acidic. Acid rain can fall in many different ways and has many effects on the environment. Acid rain is caused by air pollutants in the atmosphere. These air pollutants are mainly from man made resources such as factories and automobiles. The burning of fossil fuels is also one of the biggest factors that pollutes the air and causes acid rain. The primary emissions from man made resources are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The rain …show more content…
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
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 rain has proved to take a huge toll on Ontario’s ecosystem. However, in this section of the textbook, factors such as effects of acid rain, assessing the effects on soil and water, acidity levels and others, contribute to the main topic of acid rain in an ecosystem. To begin, the downpour of acid rain is due to the emissions from human activities that contain different pollutants/invisible gases that can be very harmful to the environment. In other words, substances containing nitrogen and Sulphur are released into the atmosphere from factories, industries, transportation and so on, where it then goes through a chemical transformation (nitric and sulphuric acid) where it either has a dry fallout, or condensation occurs and the acid descends
Acid precipitation is a wide term that incorporates any type of precipitation with acidic parts, for example, sulfuric or nitric acid that tumble to the ground from the climate in wet or dry structures. This can incorporate into rain, snow, haze, hail or even clean that is acidic. Acid rain as numerous natural impacts, yet none is more prominent than its effect on lakes, streams, wetlands, and other amphibian situations.
“North Americans have been smelting ore and burning fossil fuels for generations. In the past, the gases went up ordinary chimneys or small smoke stacks, to descend upon near by areas and pollute them,” states author, Robert Collins. Almost everyone knows what acid rain is and has a vague idea of the consequences that exist as a cause of it. Most people however do not realize the severity of acid rain. The essay “Acid Rain: Scourge from the Skies” by Robert Collins was very effective in showing the true severity of acid rain. By using excellent developmental devices, Robert Collins was able to write an effective essay that is appealing to today’s society, as well as
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 is usually acidic, meaning that it will process elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have bad effects on buildings, plants, or even animals. Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which will react with water molecules in the atmosphere which produce acids and causes acid rain.
Acid rain can hurt the plants in the forest environment because when the plant start drinking the acid rain it makes the plants natural defense weaker. In doing that they are easier to die by diseases because they do not have much natural defense to protect them. It can also cause fires to the environment. Acid rain is known to take the nutrients out of soil killing trees, plants, and crops. With the low nutrients it does damage to the red spruce tree
In general, acid rain affects lakes and streams in two ways, which are chronic and episodic.
Acid rain is commonly measured in pH units. This is the negative logarithmic values of the concentrations of hydrogen ions in solution which aid in measuring the acidity of acid rain (Berner, 2016). Pure water or distilled water always have a pH of 7 since it is neutral (Berner, 2016). This comes from the principle that any solution that has a pH greater than 7 would be called basic or alkaline, but when compared with a pH less than 7 it would
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.
Well if you already know that acid precipitation breaks down almost everything in it’s way that’s great but if you didn’t all give you a short explanation on what is. Some examples of acid precipitation are rain, sleet, or snow that contains a higher concentration of acid then normal. The things that make acid precipitation is when Air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, also produces these chemical compounds. In conclusion compounds combine with water in the atmosphere to form acids.
Acid rain damages wildlife and their environments. For example, according to Marian Chertow, he says that acid rain damages lakes, rivers, and streams. Therefore, because the water is polluted with more of the wildlife will die from the acids in the water. In this case, this part is important because if you think about it, many people and animals get food from the water. For example, the fish live in the ponds. But if the acid from the acid rain gets into the water. Then the fish will die and that will be less food for animals and humans. This means that the animal life will die down.For instance, according to Marian Chertow he claims, acid rain can damage forests and soil. Therefore, forests and many areas that contribute to soil are places for animals to live. So this means that they will lose
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
A rainstorm occurs in a forest. The summer rains wash the leaves of the branches and fall to the forest floor below. Some of the water is absorbed into the soil while other water run-off enters nearby streams, rivers, or lakes. When acid rain is absorbed into the ground, it slowly poisons the tree by being absorbed through the roots. Acidic rainwater also dissolves the nutrients and minerals that the plants need from the soil. When acid rain is frequent, leaves tend to lose their protective waxy coating.
Acid Rain Within this past century, acidity of the air and acid rain have become recognized as one of the leading threats to our planet’s environment. No longer limited by geographic boundaries, acid causing emissions are causing problems all over the world. Some laws have been passed which limit the amount of pollutants that are released into the air, but tougher legislation must be implemented before this problem can be overcome. Acid rain is produced, when automobiles, smelters, power plants, and other industrial factories burn fossil fuels such as gasoline, coal, and fuel oils.