Comparison of paleolimnological with magic model reconstructions of water acidification

Abstract

In sensitive areas receiving acidic deposition, paleolimnolgical data indicate changes in lake pH over 1 to 3 decades during the past century. Estimates of deposition of SOx and NOx over this same period suggest that deposition rates changed (1) earlier and (2) more slowly than did changes in lake chemistry. Clearly chemical and biological processes in the terrestrial catchment damp, delay, and moderate the response of surface water pH to deposition of acidifying compounds. This response is controlled by key terrestrial processes that include chemical weathering, sulfate adsorption, cation exchange, dissolution and precipitation of Al compounds, and dissolution and dissociation of inorganic C. MAGIC (Model of Acidifcation of Groundwater In Catchments) provides a tool by which these processes can be simultaneously and quantitatively linked to examine the impact of acid deposition on surface water chemistry. We have applied MAGIC to 4 lakes from which paleolimnological reconstructions are available — Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks, Loch Grannoch in Scotland, Lake Gårdsjøn in Sweden, and Lake Hovvatn in Norway. The results indicate that the processes linked in MAGIC can account for temporal trends in pH and alkalinity such as those obtained from paleolimnological data.