A method for evaluation of acidic sulfate and nitrate in precipitation

✍ Scribed by D. L. Sisterson

• Book ID: 104652317
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 730 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0049-6979
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00175583

✦ Synopsis

A simple method is presented and used to estimate the portions of SO 2 -and NO3-that contribute to the strong acidity in weekly precipitation samples collected at three NADP sites in the eastern United States. The method assumes that, in general, the difference between SO ] -and NH 2 represents acidic sulfate and the difference between NO3-and soil-derived materials (the sum of Ca 2 +, Mg 2 +, and K ÷ ) represents acidic nitrate. Acidic sulfate and nitrate are considered to be the predominant source of H + (determined from laboratory pH) in the weekly precipitation samples. Most of the acidity for all three sites was attributed to acidic sulfate. The highest fraction of acidic SO 2-to H + wet deposition values was for the east-central Tennessee site (0.95) and the northeastern Illinois site (0.90), and the lowest fraction occurred at the central Pennsylvania site (0.75). The Tennessee site had the greatest acidic fraction of sulfate (0.84) and the Pennsylvania site had the greatest acidic fraction of nitrate (0.59).