Bormann

Charles T. Driscoll

Donald C. Buso

Emily S. Bernhardt

Emma J. Rosi-Marshall

Gene E. Likens

Likens

Shao

Significance
          Acid rain has stripped forests of soil calcium, with consequences for forest health and downstream ecosystems. In 1999, researchers initiated a whole-watershed experiment, with the goal of replacing all the calcium lost. This experiment increased the pH and acid-neutralizing capacity of soils and streamwater, and forest growth increased. In 2010, nitrogen export from the treated watershed began to increase, and by 2013, annual inorganic N losses from the experimental watershed were 30-times higher than from the adjacent reference watershed, a proportional increase only seen in whole-watershed clear-cutting experiments. The discovery that calcium enrichment can convert a watershed from a sink to a source of N suggests unforeseen consequences of acid rain mitigation and provides new insights into watershed dynamics.</jats:p

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Acid rain mitigation experiment shifts a forested watershed from a net sink to a net source of nitrogen

Acid rain mitigation experiment shifts a forested watershed from a net sink to a net source of nitrogen

Abstract

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