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Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition: Implications for Terrestrial Ecosystem Structure and Functioning

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Acid in the Environment

Abstract

Acid rain research on terrestrial ecosystems has increasingly focused on the effects of inorganic nitrogen (N) deposition, both as nitric acid (HNO3) and ammonium (NH4 +, which can produce acidity in soils when oxidized). This is largely because acidification of sensitive catchments in the northeastern United States and elsewhere continued following the 1970 and 1990 amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act (Likens and Lambert 1998). These amendments capped sulfur oxide (SOX), but not N oxide (NOX) emissions from electric utilities and industrial sources. Nevertheless, NOX control programs, focused on utility and industrial sources as well as on vehicle emissions, have stabilized if not decreased NOX emissions and resultant nitrate deposition in the eastern United States (See Driscoll et al., this volume). As a result, nitrate deposition has remained relatively stable in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada through the past decade, but has increased relative to sulfate deposition (Watmough et al. 2005). Ammonium deposition, due largely to ammonia (NH3) emissions from fertilized agroeco-systems and from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs, as in Galloway et al. 2003), accounts for 30 to >50% of inorganic N deposition on the land surface in North American and other industrialized regions of the world (Galloway et al. 2004); (Holland et al. 2005).

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  1. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, USA

    Knute J. Nadelhoffer (Professor)

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  1. Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies, Connecticut College, New London, USA

    Gerald R. Visgilio  & Diana M. Whitelaw  & 

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Nadelhoffer, K.J. (2007). Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition: Implications for Terrestrial Ecosystem Structure and Functioning. In: Visgilio, G.R., Whitelaw, D.M. (eds) Acid in the Environment. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-37562-5_5

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