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Diatom and chemical evidence for reversibility of acidification of Scottish lochs

Abstract

The cause–effect relationship between acid deposition and lake acidification is well established. Attention now focuses on the response of acidified lakes to reductions in SO2 emissions1. In the United Kingdom there has been a roughly 40% decline in national SO2 emissions since the maximum in 1970 (ref. 2), and reductions in both the concentration of non-marine sulphate in precipitation2,3 and the wet deposition of sulphate2 have been recorded in Scotland since the mid-1970s. The trend is especially clear at Eskdalemuir, an international monitoring site2 (Fig. 1), and a site close to acidified lakes in Galloway, southwestern Scotland4,5. Two of these lakes have been resampled. Diatom analysis of sediment cores taken between 1981 and 1986 show a trend towards progressively decreasing acidity in the uppermost sediments for both sites. Water chemistry records show that there have been significant decreases in both proton and sulphate concentrations since 1978.

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Battarbee, R., Flower, R., Stevenson, A. et al. Diatom and chemical evidence for reversibility of acidification of Scottish lochs. Nature 332, 530–532 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/332530a0

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