Visualizing Environmental Science

Wind Conversion to acids:sulfuric acid (H

2 SO 4 )

nitric acid (HNO 3 )

nitrous acid (HNO 2 )

(NO)

Mobile

emissions

Power plant and

industrial plumes Dry acid

deposition

Increasingly

acidic lakes

Surface

runoff

SO 2 + NOx

Wet acid deposition

(droplets of H 2 SO 4 , HNO 3 , and

HNO 2 dissolved in rain and snow)

© Superclic/Alamy

Maurice E. Landre/Science Source Images
Randy Wells/Stone/Getty Images

a. Acid deposition.

Sulfur dioxide and

nitrogen oxide emissions

react with water vapor in

the atmosphere to form

acids that return to the

surface as either dry or

wet deposition.

Forest Decline.

Acid deposition is one of

several stressors that may

interact, contributing to

the decline and death

of trees.

b. Healthy Sitka

spruce branch.

c. Sitka spruce branch exhibiting the effects of forest decline.

Photographed in Black Forest, Germany.

d. Acid rain

damage.

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The effects of acid deposition

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