Air Pollution, Acid Rain, and the Future of Forests
Air Pollution, Acid Rain, and the Future of Forests

Author: Sandra Postel

Publisher:

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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This book traces centuries of human use and abuse of forest ecosystems by discussing past decades of intense burning, grazing, and timber cutting that added to the natural acidification of the soil. Air pollutants and acids generated by industrial activities worldwide are also considered. Many forests in Europe and North America now receive as much as 30 times more acidity than they would if rain or snow were falling through a pristine atmosphere; ozone levels in many rural areas of Europe and North America are now regularly in the range known to damage trees. The book is organized into six sections, an introduction and bibliography of cited references. Major topic areas discussed include: (1) signs of forest destruction worldwide; (2) pathways of pollution that in most cases are traced back to sulfur and nitrogen oxides emitted during the burning of fossil fuels; (3) economic and ecological reality of forest destruction; (4) controlling emissions through requirements for effective technology; (5) international cooperation as an essential factor in controlling a wholesale continental pollution trade; and (6) the emerging realization of the potential economic and ecological consequences of acid rain and air pollution. (BC)

Effects of Acid Rain on Forest Processes
Effects of Acid Rain on Forest Processes

Author: Douglas L. Godbold

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 1994-09-28

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13: 9780471517689

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A detailed analysis of acidification effects on forest soil, rhizosphere and plant life and on the processes connecting them such as nutrient uptake and mineral cycling. Presents findings from the Solling project, an important long-term study on acid rain results in Germany's Black Forest, as well as other European forests which have experienced severe acid rain damage as a means of evaluating and predicting similar harm to U.S. forests.

Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants on Forests, Wetlands and Agricultural Ecosystems
Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants on Forests, Wetlands and Agricultural Ecosystems

Author: T.C. Hutchinson

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 663

ISBN-13: 3642708749

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T. C. Hutchinson The NATO Advanced Research Workshop detailed in this volume was held in Toronto, Canada, in 1985. The purpose of the Workshop was to provide a "state of the art" report on our knowledge of the sensitivities and responses of forests, wetlands and crops to airborne pollutants. Approximately 40 scientific experts from nine countries participated. Most participants were actively involved in research concerning the effects of air pollutants on natural or agro-ecosystems. These pollutants included acidic deposition, heavy metal particulates, sulphur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides, acid fogs and mixtures of these. Also invited were experts on various types of ecosystem stresses, physiologi cal mechanisms pertinent to acid deposition, and other areas that were felt by the director to be of direct relevance, including: effects of ethylene on vegetation, the physiology of drought in trees, the nature and role of plant cuticles as barriers to acid rain penetration, the use of dendrochronological techniques in reconstructing the time of onset and the subsequent progression of growth declines, the ability of soils to naturally generate acidity, the role of Sphagnum moss in natural peat land acidity, the use of lichens as indicators of changing air quality, and the magnitude of natural emissions of reduced sulphur gases from tropical rainforests and temperate deciduous forests. The Workshop included a series of invited presentations and subsequent group discussions. These presentations were designed to allow syntheses of our present knowledge as well as detailed questioning and discussion.

Poisonous Skies
Poisonous Skies

Author: Rachel Emma Rothschild

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-07-19

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 022663485X

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The climate change reckoning looms. As scientists try to discern what the Earth’s changing weather patterns mean for our future, Rachel Rothschild seeks to understand the current scientific and political debates surrounding the environment through the history of another global environmental threat: acid rain. The identification of acid rain in the 1960s changed scientific and popular understanding of fossil fuel pollution’s potential to cause regional—and even global—environmental harms. It showed scientists that the problem of fossil fuel pollution was one that crossed borders—it could travel across vast stretches of the earth’s atmosphere to impact ecosystems around the world. This unprecedented transnational reach prompted governments, for the first time, to confront the need to cooperate on pollution policies, transforming environmental science and diplomacy. Studies of acid rain and other pollutants brought about a reimagining of how to investigate the natural world as a complete entity, and the responses of policy makers, scientists, and the public set the stage for how societies have approached other prominent environmental dangers on a global scale, most notably climate change. Grounded in archival research spanning eight countries and five languages, as well as interviews with leading scientists from both government and industry, Poisonous Skies is the first book to examine the history of acid rain in an international context. By delving deep into our environmental past, Rothschild hopes to inform its future, showing us how much is at stake for the natural world as well as what we risk—and have already risked—by not acting.