How Does Acid Rain Affect The Environment

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

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

Through the advancement of technology, the issue of the air surrounding the earth might have been one of the most often matters to be brought up and discussed among scientists and engineers. Acid rain is one of the more serious environmental problems and it is closely related to the air pollution. Nowadays, it has affected large part of US, Europe and Canada. People start to be concerned about acid rain since it is getting worse in the passed years. The effect of the acid rain most often leads to another bad effect. For example, the acid rain will cause the lake and streams to be acidic. Thus, it will also affect the ecosystem inside the water.

1) What are probable sources of acid precipitation in your community? What impact can this have on the environment in your region?

Another form of industrial waste that contributes to water pollution is acid rain. Acid rain is a product of industries burning coal. The burning of coal produces sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide, and when these chemicals combine with the earth’s atmosphere it forms acid rain The Northeastern part of the United States has the worst acid rain levels in the world. More specific, the states with the highest concentration are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and some boarding parts of Canada and New England area. The falling acid rain can destroy plants and animals in several different ways. The acidification of a lake, river, or stream because of the high acidic levels in the water kills algae. Since algae are the main source of food, for many species of fish, they will also suffer from the high acid levels.

Wet deposition has damageable effects on the ecological system such as lakes, rivers and oceans. When acid rain goes through soil, it drains aluminum from it and then flows into bodies of water. This

Forests inherit the damage in the soil, and especially the higher altitude ones grab the acid directly from the clouds. The acid damages the leaves and limits a plant’s ability to photosynthesize. It also weakens the overall structure of the plant, which would make it more venerable to disease and death, especially in colder climates. The forests that are damaged eventually look like a graveyard of trees. There is little biodiversity in the surrounding area because plants don’t survive in the acidic soil, leaving the herbivores and omnivores with no source of food. Acid rain

Acid rain is detrimental to the environment. It affects everything from plants and trees to fish and wildlife to infrastructure to human life. SO2 and NOX react in the atmosphere to form fine sulfate and nitrate particles which people breathes in which in turn raises the risk of more heart disease risks, and lung

Acid rain has been a problem to Earth's ecosystems since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution period; when machines and industry began spewing out acidic pollution into our atmosphere. However, only in the past few decades have the problem of acidic rain fallout been known and studied. The acid rain problem received top billing with environmentalist and politicians throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. Acid rain has a harmful effect to our environment.

Areas that have problems with acid rain are those that contain many running cars and a large population of people in one place, such as cities. Areas near electric companies that burn fossil fuel or manufacturing industries also face acid rain. Even areas that are far from electric companies and manufacturing industries face the wrath of acid rain as SO2 and NOx can travel far through wind and air currents.

The term ‘acid rain’ refers to the atmospheric deposition of acidic constituents that impact the earth as rain, snow, particulates, gases, and vapor. The bulk of the acidity in rain comes from the reaction of sulfur dioxide (SO2) with hydrogen peroxide in clouds, a reaction that produces sulfuric acid. Even though sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide occur in the air naturally, burning fossil fuels adds more of these chemicals into to the air. When these pollutants are released into the air, they mix and react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form acid rain. Acid rain then falls to the Earth where it can damage plants, animals, soil, water, and building materials.

INTRODUCTION: The dictionary definition of acid rain is “’rainfall made so acidic by atmospheric pollution that it causes environmental harm, chiefly to forests and lakes. The main cause is the industrial burning of coal and other fossil fuels, the waste gases from which contain sulphur and nitrogen oxides which combine with atmospheric water to form acids.” In Northern Europe and North America millions of trees have died because of the causes of acid rain. Some lakes contain so much acid that all the fish have died and the birds that relied on this fish for food have left. Acid rain also speeds up the rusting of iron and building made of marble, limestone and concrete have been severely affected. It is because of these reasons that acid

Atmospheric pollution among other air pollutants can cause rain water to become acidic. The rain water collects in rivers and the water will become acidic therefore endangering humans who use the water as well as killing or weakening the biodiversity in the river as well as the surrounding areas of the river.

To begin, an unfortunate major effect of air pollution is acid rain. People may think rainfall is non irritating and safe, but due to unmonitored human activities, rainfall becomes far more dangerous and toxic, becoming acid rain. “Basically, acid rain is precipitation containing harmful amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids, and is formed primarily by nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxides released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned”, quoted by Scott Sutherland, a meteorologist and science writer from The Weather Network. Additionally, these acids will fall to Earth either as wet precipitation, like rain, snow, or fog, or as dry precipitation, like gas and particulates. Whereas, some are carried by the wind, which is capable of travelling up to hundreds of miles. For this reason, acid rain damages the environment by contaminating the trees, which causes the soils and bodies of water to acidify. As a result, it makes the water extremely threatening for some fish and other wildlife. According to China.Org.CN, “acid rain has led to the death of 1 million hectares of forest in middle Europe and 9,000 hectares in northern Italy. In Sweden, more than

Harming of forests, lakes, and their ecosystems by acid rain (including Alaska, Canada, Norway, Eastern U.S., Germany, etc.)