Effects of acid depositions on forests and soils

Summary It is unnecessary to emphasize that this subject is both important and emotive. Concern about damage from acid depositions — polluted air and rainwater — has been increasing with the realization that damage to forests in Central Europe is spreading and intensifying and has also appeared in southern Sweden. There is naturally concern as to whether this phenomenon will appear in Britain — indeed there have been allegations that British forests are already suffering from acid deposition damage. Our difficulty is in arriving at an understanding not only of the mechanisms by which pollutants and other stressing factors may affect forests, but also how much of the damage seen is due to pollutants and ow much would have occurred in their absence. The paper also considers secondary pollutants, such as ozone, which are not strictly part of the acid depositions.A forestry graduate of Aberdeen University, Dr Binns worked for seven years at the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research before joining the UK Forestry Commission Research and Development Division in 1963, where he is now Head of the Site Studies (South) Branch. In addition to responsibilities for soil chemistry and physics, forest ecology and reclamation research, he is currently concerned personally mainly with problems of hydrology and acid rain.This paper was one of a number first delivered at the Institution of Environmental Sciences Seminar;An Update on Acid Rain, held in London, in November 1984.