Abstract
Data from two national precipitation chemistry monitoring networks, and several regional air and precipitation chemistry networks are used to describe some broad-scale features of acidic deposition in eastern North America. In northeastern North America, the coefficient of variation is shown to increase from 10–16% for annual averages to nearly 100% for daily values. There is a strong annual cycle in H+, SO sup=inf4 and NH sup+inf4 deposition and some of the other ions although these cycles are not all in phase. The wet NO sup−inf3 deposition contributes relatively more than SO sup=inf4 to the acidity of snow as compared to rain. Wet deposition is highly “episodic” with about 50% to 70% of the total annual deposition of SO sup=inf4 and NO sup−inf3 accumulating in the highest 20% of the days. Estimates made in various ways indicate that, over eastern North America as a whole, dry deposition is approximately equal to wet for both SO sup=inf4 and NO sup−inf3 . Dry may exceed wet in the high emissions zone but drops to about 20% of the total deposition in more remote areas. Deposition via fog or low cloud impaction is an important input to high elevation forests, but more data are required to quantify the magnitude and regional extent of this.
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Summers, P.W., Bowersox, V.C. & Stensland, G.J. The geographical distribution and temporal variations of acidic deposition in Eastern North America. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 31, 523–535 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00284210
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00284210