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Research article1996Peer reviewed

Response of spodic B horizons to acid precipitation in northernmost Fennoscandia

Gustafsson, Jon Petter

Abstract

In northernmost Fennoscandia there is concern about the possible environmental effects of the sulphur emissions from Russian nickel smelters on the Kola Peninsula. The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent the soils of this region may delay the response to pA changes through sulphate adsorption, and whether there are evidence for strong soil acidification effects. To this end 26 spodic B horizons were collected along a transect from northernmost Sweden to north-easternmost Norway, only 10 km from the Pechenganikel smelter. As the pH(H2O) was > 4.8 in all soils, and as the exchangeable Ca/Al ratio was high, there were no evidence for strong soil acidification effects. Water-extractable SO4 was clearly affected by the S deposition and thus SO4 was at least partly mobile in the soils; it is therefore possible that soil solutions close to the smelter may have been acidified. In spite of this, sulphate adsorption was found to be more important than cation exchange reactions as a delaying process against soil acidification, at least in the top 10 cm of the B horizon. For the top 20 cm of the B horizon it was estimated that SO4 adsorption can neutralize, on average, 700 mmol(c) m(-2) of acid before the pH is decreased to 4.4. Thus if the S deposition remains unchanged, decades are required to severely acidify most soils in the affected parts of Norway and Finland.

Keywords

sulphate adsorption; cation exchange; soil acidification; smelters; models; sulphur deposition; Finland; Norway; Sweden

Published in

Water, Air, and Soil Pollution
1996, Volume: 89, number: 1-2, pages: 205-220
Publisher: SPRINGER

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Soil Science

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00300431

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/69505