Acid Rain

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Acid Rain
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Local issues involving Acid Rain

• Acid Rain threatens the future productivity of
  forests by quietly dissolving their food reserves
  in the soil.
• In Georgia, an estimated 26.7 percent of the
  sulfur emitted by utility units is returned
  through precipitation, this element is usually
  added to deficient soils.
• Appalachian hardwood forests may be getting a
  respite from acid rain but data from a long-term
  ecological study of stream chemistry suggests
  that the drop in acid rain may be changing
  biological activity in the ecosystem and hiking
  dissolved carbon dioxide in forest.

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What is Acid Rain?

• Any form of precipitation that is unusually
  acidic.
• It contains higher than normal amounts of nitric
  and sulfuric acids.
• Acid rain occurs when these gases react in the
  atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other
  chemicals to form various acidic compounds.

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Causes of Acid Rain

• The main chemical causes of acid rain are sulfur
  dioxide and nitrogen oxides released into the
  air.
• Fires, volcanic eruptions, bacterial
  decomposition, and lightning greatly increase the
  nitrogen levels on Earth.
• The main physical cause of acid acid rain is most
  definetly humans. We release many different
  chemicals into the air that have changed the
  mixes of gases in the atmoshere. A lot of rain is
  naturally acidic, but humans are a key role in
  making it worse

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Preventing Acid Rain

• Turn off lights, computers, and other appliances
  when not using them
• Only use electric appliances when you need them
• Use energy-efficient appliances
• Keep your thermostat at 68F in winter and 72F in
  the summer
• Avoid using cars and use public transportation
  instead to decrease fuel exhausts

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How Acid Rain Affects the Biosphere

• Nutrients are washed from the soil causing the
  growth rate to slow down.
• The harmful chemicals in the soil are consumed by
  the tree which cause their leaves to fall off.
• Without leaves, trees cannot use sunlight to make
  their own food.
• Trees that are exposed to acid rain have
  difficult time withstanding periods of drought,
  diseases, cold weather and infestation of insects.

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How Acid Rain Affects the Biosphere

• When the water gets contaminated by acid rain,
  the aquatic insects and amphibians become
  affected and have more chances of not breeding
  successfully.
• Acid rain causes the food chain to break down and
  animal life begins to disappear slowly.

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Food Chain Affected From Acid Rain

• More phytoplankton die and shorten up the food
  source for insects such as dragonflies, and
  mayflies.
• These insects start to die because of the short
  food supply and cause the frogs, birds,
  salamanders, and other types of fish to die.
• The bald eagle and snake start to die because of
  their short food supply.
• This process continues until it has affected
  every animal in that food chain.

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Food Chain Affected From Acid Rain
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Acid Rain in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park

• This Park receives the higher sulfur and nitrogen
  deposits of any other park.
• The average acidic rain that falls in the park is
  4.5, 5-10 times more acidic than normal rain.
• The higher elevations receive as low as 2.0 pH of
  acidic rain.
• High elevation soils receive so much airborne
  nitrogen, which causes them to suffer from
  advanced nitrogen saturation.

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Acid Rain in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park

• This limits the forest nutrients, like calcium,
  to plants.
• It causes the release of toxic aluminum which
  hurt vegetation and stream life.
• The health of the high elevation ecosystems is in
  jeopardy because of the level of acid in the
  Mountain streams and forest.
• The nitrate levels in some streams are
  approaching the public health standard for
  drinking water.

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How Acid Rain affects the non-living environment

• The greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide
  affects the deforestation, and most of all the
  oceans.
• Acid Rain ruins building because it eats into
  metal and stones.
• Important statues are being ruin because the acid
  speeds up erosion.
• When rain comes in contact with materials
  surrounding the lake, suck as leaves, the water
  drains into the lake.

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Cont.

• Acid rain can damage soil by destroying many
  vital substances, and washing away nutrients.
• Soil contains naturally small amounts of
  poisonous mineral such as mercury and aluminum,
  and when the rain falls chemical reaction occurs.
  
• When plants take up the chemical reactions from
  the soils they get damage, and this affect the
  animals that eat them.

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ACTIVITY

• http//www.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_student
  s/index.html
• To observe the effects of acid rain on marble and
  limestonetwo building materials commonly used in
  monuments, ancient buildings, and in many modern
  structuresconduct the following experiment
• Place a piece of chalk in a bowl with white
  vinegar.
• Place another piece in a bowl of tap water.
• Leave the dishes overnight.
• The next day, see if you can tell which piece of
  chalk is more worn away.
• This experiment with chalk allows you to see the
  effect of acid rain on marble and limestone
  because chalk is made of calcium carbonate, a
  compound occurring in rocks, such as marble and
  limestone, and in animal bones, shells, and teeth