Articles containing the keyword 'acidification'

The article is a literature review focusing on the reaction of soil respiration, litter decomposition and microflora of forest soils to various pollutants like acidic deposition, heavy metals and unusual high amounts of basic cations. There is a great deal of evidence indicating that environmental pollution affects soil microbial activity and community structure. Much of the data originates from experimental designs where high levels of pollutants were applied to the soil under field or laboratory conditions. Furthermore, many were short-term experiments designed to look for large effects. These experiments have an indicative value, but it has to be kept in mind that environmental pollution is a combination of many pollutants, mostly at low concentrations, acting over long periods of time. There is therefore consequently a demand for research performed in natural forest environments polluted with anthropogenic compounds. 

• Fritze, E-mail: hf@mm.unknown

In producing time series of soil properties, there are many technical and statistical problems which need to be taken into account when sampling and analysing the measurement data. In field the reliable localization of sample plots and the precise distinction of different soil layers are important to reduce the variance caused by the sampling procedure. In laboratory the use of same extraction salt, sample pretreatment procedure and filter paper throughout a measurement series is important. The remarkable small-scale variation within a sampling plot leads to a need of a large number of samples to be collected.

In this study, no trends attributable to soil acidification in the contents of exchangeable base cations could be found among the years 1982, 1985 and 1988. However, in eluvial and illuvial layers the pH decreased and the content of extractable H+ increased during this period. In illuvial layer also the content of extractable aluminium increased.

The PDF includes an abstract in Finnish.

• Ilvesniemi, E-mail: hi@mm.unknown

A monitoring program is planned for the terrestrial environment around industries in Sweden, which emit acid compounds and heavy metals. Directions for the County Government Boards are being prepared. The paper deals with the present pollution situation in Sweden, based on recent scientific results, the justifications for local monitoring, and the organizing of the monitoring including the parameters suggested.

Four examples from a case study at an oil power station illustrate reporting of the data and the difficulties in interpreting the results. The examples are the distribution of a lichen indicator, heavy metal content and phosphatase activity in the moor layer, soil respiration and tree growth.

• Westman, E-mail: lw@mm.unknown

Information on input of acidifying compounds like SO₂ and NO_x is necessary to understand effects of acidification. The uptake on NO and NO2 respectively was studied on seedlings and shoots of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Experiments were conducted both in laboratory (NO and NO₂ respectively) and in the field (NO₂) under light and dark conditions. In all three cases there was a linear relationship between the uptake rate and the NO_x-concentration. The uptake follows a diurnal pattern i.e. the uptake rate was strongly correlated with the stomatal movements. Uptake rates were converted to deposition rate and the results showed that field exposure with NO₂ gave the higher deposition rate.

• Skärby, E-mail: ls@mm.unknown
• Bengtson, E-mail: cb@mm.unknown
• Boström, E-mail: cb@mm.unknown
• Grennfelt, E-mail: pg@mm.unknown
• Troeng, E-mail: et@mm.unknown

• Tamminen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Centre, P.O. Box 18, FI-01301 Vantaa, Finland E-mail: pekka.tamminen@metla.fi
• Derome, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Rovaniemi Research Station, P.O. Box 16, FI-96301 Rovaniemi, Finland E-mail: jd@nn.fi