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EFFECTS
OF ACID RAIN
Research
funded by NSF that identified acid rain and its effects conducted at the
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in NH, began in the early 1960s, with
major research findings presented in 1972.
NSF began funding Long-term ecological research (LTER) at Hubbard Brook
Experimental Forest in 1987. This long-term research led to important
changes in the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air
Act. Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest receives nearly all of its funding
from NSF.
Acid rain is caused primarily fromthe
burning of high-sulfur coal and oil used to fuel electric power plants.
Emissions from these sources are transported through the atmosphere and
are deposited on locations downwind through rain, snow, sleet, hail and
via dry deposition of acidifying gases and particles and cloud and fog
water.
These are important sources of acid rain. Considered a widespread, regional
phenomenon in eastern North America, the Scandinavian countries and elsewhere
throughout the world, acid
rain consists of abnormally high acidic levels in rain, snow, fog and
cloud water.
While the long-term effects of acid rain are still being studied, it is
well documented that effects include harm
to freshwater ecosystems and widespread decline in forest health,including
damage to more than 70 percent of the red spruce forests in parts of New
England.
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