Futter, Martyn
- Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Research article2014Peer reviewedOpen access
Futter, Martyn; Valinia, Salar; Löfgren, Stefan; Köhler, Stephan; Fölster, Jens
Long-term (1987-2012) water quality monitoring in 36 acid-sensitive Swedish lakes shows slow recovery from historic acidification. Overall, strong acid anion concentrations declined, primarily as a result of declines in sulfate. Chloride is now the dominant anion in many acid-sensitive lakes. Base cation concentrations have declined less rapidly than strong acid anion concentrations, leading to an increase in charge balance acid neutralizing capacity. In many lakes, modeled organic acidity is now approximately equal to inorganic acidity. The observed trends in water chemistry suggest lakes may not return to reference conditions. Despite declines in acid deposition, many of these lakes are still acidified. Base cation concentrations continue to decline and alkalinity shows only small increases. A changing climate may further delay recovery by increasing dissolved organic carbon concentrations and sea-salt episodes. More intensive forest harvesting may also hamper recovery by reducing the supply of soil base cations.
Acidification; Recovery; Sweden; Base cation decline; Acid neutralizing capacity; Dissolved organic carbon
AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2014, Volume: 43, number: 1 Supplement, pages: 77-90 Publisher: SPRINGER
Lakes and watercourses
Acidification
Use of FOMA data
SLU Future Forests
SDG6 Clean water and sanitation
Environmental Sciences
Forest Science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0563-2
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/64216