" It is a term that has been imbedded in us for many decades and yet still it is an issue today. It is a term that was coined in 1872 by Dr. Robert Angus Smith, an English chemist. (Mello 21). He noticed that the air in the cities contained many different contaminates including sulfuric acid, which he believed to be the cause of corroding metals and certain types of damage to plants. His colleagues ignored his studies and findings and it wasn't until 100 years later that scientists started to explore this serious problem.
There are many different pollutants that incur the effects of acid deposition. Primary pollutants are emitted directly into the atmosphere from sources such as power plants, automobiles, factories, and even residential furnaces. These primary pollutants include sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NO). When nitrogen and sulfur combine with oxygen, a very reactive element in our atmosphere, secondary pollutants are formed. These include photochemical oxidants, such as ozone, and acid deposition. Acid rain forms when nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide react with oxidants and moisture in the atmosphere to form nitric acid and sulfuric acid. These acids are made of hydrogen and nitrate or sulfate ions (Dept of Agriculture 8). These acids can reach the earth as precipitation in the form of rain, .
Grant 2.
snow, sleet, hail, clouds, dew, and fog. It can also reach the earth as dry particles or gasses. .
Many of these gaseous emissions and particles come from coal burning power plants and other industrial sources. Subsequently, in Northern New York and New England, there are few industrial areas, however the pollutants are carried hundreds of miles and deposited here by different weather patterns. .
In the 1960's scientists began to notice a decline in the red spruce population in Vermont and other northeastern forests. The decline is much more apparent in higher elevations, or the boreal zone.
The White Mountains Region covers northwestern Maine and part of New Hampshire and Vermont. ... Trees include the balsam fir, basswood, beech, hemlock, maple, oak, pine, spruce, and white and yellow birch. Maine's most common wild flowers are the anemone, aster, bittersweet, black-eyes Susan, buttercup, goldenrod, harebell, hepatica, Indian pipe, orange and red hawkweed, white oxeye daisy, and wild bergamot. ...
