What is Acid Rain?

Acid rain is rain that has been contaminated with acids. This acids comes from certain pollutants like factories or automobiles. This acids can fall like rain, sleet, snow, or fog.

The Problem

The acid rain is contaminating the ecosystem and environment. It is killing the trees in the forests by killing their nutrients. Is beating up our health. The acid rain is affecting the food web.

What is acidity?

Acidic and basic are ways that we describe chemical compounds. Acidity is the measure of the power of the acid. Acidity is measured by a pH scale. A pH scale runs from zero that is the most acidic, the one with more power to 14 that is the most basic. A substance that is neither than acidic than basic is called neutral.

What Causes Acid Rain?

Acid rain is caused by achemical reaction that begins when compoundslike sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide fly into the air. These compounds can float very highly and move very fast. So after this substances floated to the sky they get mixed with clouds. So now these clouds are contaminated with this acids andthe water that these clouds give are acidic, that is called acid rain.

Human activities are the main cause of acid rain. This means that the humans are the ones who create all this acids that mix with the clouds. The power plants release the majority of sulfur dioxide. Most of the nitrogen oxide is release when

they burn fossil fuels to make electricity. Also all the cars, buses and trucks release acids into the air.

The Effects

Acid Rain Can Cause Health Problems In People

Air pollution like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide can cause respiratory sickness. This acids come from factories and automobiles. Asthma and chronic bronchitis are to diseases that you can catch from this acids. The diseases make it hard for people to breath. The pollution can create tiny particles that when the particles get into peoples lungs they create health problems. This creates diseases like pneumonia and bronchitis, and can create permanent lung damage.

Acid Rain Harms Forests

Acid rain can be really harmful to the forests. The acid that sweeps into the soil takes out the calcium of the trees. This leeds to infections and diseases leting the trees die.

Acid Rain Damages Lakes And Streams

Clean lakes and streams have a pH level about 6.5. When they are contaminated with acis rain their pH level raises up. This makes the aquatic life die.

The Effects In Animals And Vegtation

Effects In Animals

The animals that live in the ground can be affected by the acid rain. One way they can be affected is when the acids kill the trees an their homes are destroyed. Another way they can be affected is when their source of water like lakes or streams are acidic and they drink the polluted water. They could probably get sick or even die. The animals that live in the water can also be affected. One way they are affected

is simply that they die because of the acidic water. Fishes are very sensitive to acidic water. Another way they can be affected is by eating smaller things that are contaminated because of the acid.

Effects In Plants

Acid that goes into the ground dissolves nutrients such as magnesium and calcium, that

trees need to survive. Without nutrients the trees catch infections or diseases and die. Acid rain also causes aluminum to be releases into the soil creating difficulties for trees to take up water. Trees that are high in the mountains are at great danger because they are expose to acidic fog or clouds, which have much more acidity.

Animals Affected

Unfortunately the increase of acids and aluminum can be deadly to the aquatic life. Animals like phytoplankton, mayflies, rainbow trout, small mouth bass, frogs, salamanders, crayfish and other creatures.

pH Effects

pH can affect the animals. It depends on the level of pH. If the acid rain has a high level then it will affect more. If it's level is a little more than 6.5 (neutral) than is just going to affect a little. So the higher the pH level the more it affects and the less the level the less is going to affect.

Food Web

A food web is a diagram that explains haw a bunch of animals survive by eating each other. An animal that is at the top of a food web is a predator that eats the animals below them. The animals or plants below are prey of the predators. Some animal have a lot of different animals to eat while others have much more less options.

Acid rain can affect a food web really easy. If one specie dies then the whole food web dies. For example: if phytoplankton dies because of the acid then trouts, dragonflies and mayflies die because they depend on the phytoplankton for food, and eventually they die. with this animals dead other animals that depend of this animals like fish, birds, frogs and salamanders eventually die. This process continues up the entire food web. So acid rain may not affect only one specie, it affects all the other species including us.