Air Quality and Freshwaters

This is a complex subject area where there has a very large amount of relevant research. Only a small proportion of this can feature in the lecture. You should read independently and widely.

You should understand the phenomena involved - how there are many sources of pollutant which produce acidification of ecosystems.
You should understand how the complexity has interfered with developing control measures but gain an appreciation of how far control has been achieved.

In BIOL202 we are particularly interested in Transboundary Air Pollution so you should be able to put your knowledge into the context of:

• The UK

• Scandinavia and Europe

• and wherever possible, Continental North America (as this is a global problem)

 (Use the links provided below to find out more)

• Lecture Notes : Acid rain and ecosystems : Click here   for some fairly extensive background notes (which may open in your browser or be downloaded as a MSWord document directly to your computer depending on your browser settings)

• For access to the PowerPoint Presentation used in the Lecture please login to VITAL

Reading:

The UK Report on TransBoundary Air Pollution (NEGTAP) is now in the Harold Cohen Library in Hard Copy at TD883.7.G7.U55) or can be accessed via the web at http://www.nbu.ac.uk/negtap/finalreport.htm

Chapter 6 on Effects on Freshwaters is particularly appropriate for this lecture

You are strongly advised to use the World Wide web to scrutinise some up to date information and data.
The links below should be of some assistance but are by no means comprehensive:

Please click here for a page of Links to some more, relevant, web based materials:

Suggested additional knowledge needed for this subject area:

The origin of acid deposition
The Chemical Characteristics of Acid Deposition and its reactions in the atmosphere
The complexity of the problems caused and their origins
The impact of acids on soils
The impact of acids on freshwaters
The role of aluminium in soils and freshwaters
The influence of pH and aluminium on Freshwater ecosystem composition
The cause of 'Forest Dieback'
How ozone in the lower atmosphere is involved in causing damage to trees
The origin of 'photochemical smog'

If you are really interested in the subject : the notes for a whole MSc course devoted to  Acid Rain are available from Napier University

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