Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McNulty, Steven G.
• Cohen, Erika C.
• Moore Myers, Jennifer A.
• Sullivan, Timothy J.
• Li, Harbin

Titel

Estimates of critical acid loads and exceedances for forest soils across the conterminous United States

Ist Teil von

• Environmental pollution (1987), 2007-10, Vol.149 (3), p.281-292

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Concern regarding the impacts of continued nitrogen and sulfur deposition on ecosystem health has prompted the development of critical acid load assessments for forest soils. A critical acid load is a quantitative estimate of exposure to one or more pollutants at or above which harmful acidification-related effects on sensitive elements of the environment occur. A pollutant load in excess of a critical acid load is termed exceedance. This study combined a simple mass balance equation with national-scale databases to estimate critical acid load and exceedance for forest soils at a 1-km 2 spatial resolution across the conterminous US. This study estimated that about 15% of US forest soils are in exceedance of their critical acid load by more than 250 eq ha −1 yr −1, including much of New England and West Virginia. Very few areas of exceedance were predicted in the western US. This simple mass balance equation estimated that 17% of US forest soils exceed their critical acid load by more than 250 eq ha −1 yr −1, and these areas are predominantly located in the northeastern US.