More evidence linking acid air pollution and the death of forest trees in the Northeast has surfaced from Cornell University and the Ithaca-based Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research.
Two scientists have completed a study showing how acidic clouds contribute to the killing of red spruce trees, one of the Northeast’s dominant forest species, according to the Institute.
While previous research pointed to the relationship between acid rain, acidic clouds and damage to the trees, the new study demonstrates exactly how that damage happens in the case of one species, said Jay Jacobson, BTI plant physiologist who conducted the project with James Lassoie of Cornell.
Clouds containing sulfuric acid and nitric acid–the two major pollutants in acid rain–often envelop high mountain forests like those of the Adirondacks.
Jacobson and Lassoie found that sulfuric acid-containing clouds hurt the red spruce’s foliage, killing the needles outright at high concentrations of the pollutant. Foliage damage weakens trees by interfering with photosynthesis, the process by which trees thrive.
Nitric acid in the clouds upsets the trees nutrient balance and causes chronic deficiencies, the team found. Jacobson predicts the work will be controversial. Many other natural factors – including drought, low soil nutrients, extreme weather, and inner atmospheric ozone – could also be contributing to the decline of forest trees.
The rapid death of forests is a critical Gaian life sign which is underreported by the press and underestimated by scientists.
In the mind of a detective investigating a death, most glaring is the omission from the report of the sources of acid air. We have a body and a bullet, but where is the gun? Who “fired” the weapon? The word “combustion” is never mentioned, nor “fossil fuels, fertilizer, industry, autos…” What good is the truth if it isn’t the whole truth? How long will media remain myopic?
The most crucial revelation is that photosynthesis of carbohydrates is disrupted by acid air attack. The trees are starving. Greenhouse effect/global warming watchers will realize this blocks CO2 removal at its fundamental bottleneck. Ozone/CFC watchers will wonder about the role of ozone in this photosynthetic paralysis.
It is logic to guess nitric acid is upsetting nitrate balances in the synthesis of amino acids. We now know half the sulphur in acid air rises from rotting algae blooms dying in waters over-enriched with sewage and nitrogen fertlizer runoff. An unknown amount of nitrogen in acid air is from farm fertilizers–after all, where does all that ammonia and ammonium go? Not all of it runs off into streams. A “smoking gun” lies invisible in fumes rising from chemical drenched soil in farm fields while media neglect to even mention industrial shotguns belching across the land.
What is desperately needed coverage of the whole story of the imminent death of our forests–not only its mechanisms and cause, but its cure. Such treatment requires a degree of wide angle focus, attention span and honest self reflection the news media ever supply. After all, all of industrial society is suspect in this who-done-it murder mystery.
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