The Acid Tongue of Climate Change Strikes Our Streams
Clear air policies have led to dramatic reductions in acid rain and improved ecosystem health, but it now appears that climate change could counteract those gains.
The difference in the black line from the dashed, as highlighted by the blue arrow, depicts the study's estimated gains in alkalinity, and hence improvements in acidity of the studied stream, owing to the influence that the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Anthropogenic changes to temperature and precipitation is then projected to induce a counteracting effect of 68%, shown by the difference in the gray line from the black and the red arrow. Credit: Robison and Scanlon, 2018, Figure 6
By Ankur Rashmikant Desai
Increased acidity in rain arises from release of sulfur and nitrogen compounds from fossil fuel power plants. The deposited rainwater tends to negatively affect the health of a host of ecosystems, including streams and forests. In the United States, remarkable reductions of acidity arose after the passage of the US Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, leading to adoption of technologies to reduce power plant emissions and phasing out of dirtier plants. However, acid rain remains a problem for many parts of the country.
Robison and Scanlon [2018] document and project an additional stressor from projected anthropogenic climate change on a stream in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Many of these streams have failed to recover quickly as soils are continue to release adsorbed sulfate. A simulation model was used to demonstrate that projected temperature and precipitation patterns will likely offset more than two-thirds of otherwise projected improvements in stream acid-base chemistry.