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Reading for Translating

Is Acid Rain Killing Off Wood Thrushes?

Robert Winkler

for National Geographic News

August 13, 2002

Acid rain may be forgotten, but it is not gone, and now researchers at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology have linked it to the decline of the wood thrush, a forest bird known for its beautiful song.

The wood thrush breeds in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, and winters from central Mexico to Panama. Like many neotropical migrants, its population has been declining—nearly 2 percent a year between 1966 and 2000, according to Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data.

Using data from the BBS, from government studies of acid rain and soil acidity, the researchers did a statistical analysis and found that increased amounts of acid rain make wood thrushes less likely to breed.

Robert Angus Smith, a British chemist, coined the term "acid rain" in 1852, but it didn't enter the public consciousness until the 1980s, when its destructive effects on trees and lakes caught the attention of the media. Acid rain results when sulfur and nitrogen compounds—products of fossil fuel combustion—rise into the atmosphere and combine with water. Prevailing winds may carry acid rain far; much of the acid rain that has fallen in the Northeast, for example, originated in power plants of the Midwest.

In the United States, the Clean Air Act has brought about a reduction in the emissions that cause acid rain, but many eastern regions of North America continue to experience heavy, wet acidic deposition, and many bird species breeding in these areas show unexplained population declines. Further, long-term acid deposition has depleted the available calcium in acid-sensitive soils, and current emission standards may be insufficient to ensure the recovery of these soils.

Despite rising awareness of acid rain's more insidious effects, such as calcium depletion in soil, research on declining populations of North American birds has continued to focus on the dangers of habitat loss. Indeed, the Cornell study claims to be the first in North America to present large-scale evidence linking the population decline of a land bird to acid rain.

Acid rain, for example, can cause calcium to leach from the soil. The loss of this nutrient jeopardizes the breeding success of birds—to produce a clutch of eggs, a female bird may require up to 15 times more calcium than a pregnant mammal of equivalent size.

In areas where acid rain is most severe, the supplementary calcium-rich foods that female songbirds depend on—snail shells, isopods such as pill bugs, millipedes, and earthworms—may be in short supply. Lacking adequate calcium in their diet, females are more likely to lay eggs that are thin, brittle, and porous. If the weakened eggs can withstand the rigors of incubation, the parent birds will be hard-pressed to meet the very high calcium requirements of their growing nestlings.

Aside from depleting calcium, acid rain in soil can promote increased levels of potentially toxic aluminum, cadmium, and lead. Polluted soil, moreover, may slow the decomposition of leaf litter, which reduces the diversity and abundance of prey.

Speaking

Interview: Acid Rain and Climate Change

By Larry O'Hanlon

Acid rain is not something that was "solved" in the 1990s. Progress has been made, sure, but as long as we are burning fossil fuels there will be effects on the environment - in particular the acidification of lakes, streams and soils. Charles Driscoll is at the forefront of not only acid rain research, but he's very interested in how acid precipitation interacts with climate change.

Charles Driscoll is a professor of Environmental Systems Engineering. He is also director of the Center for Environmental Engineering. He's been working at reminding the media and the public that acid rain is not only a battle of the past, but one we are still fighting today.

Read the interview and discuss the impacts of acid rain mentioned in it.

Larry: Hello!

Charles Driscoll: Hello how is it going?

L: Good. You?

CD: Fine. We are headed to Toronto after our discussion.

L: Ah yes. Are you presenting anything?

CD: Yes. I am presenting on a new project we have on climate change and acid rain interactions.

L: So on acid rain. It's below the radar of the media these days. Any idea why?

CD: I think it is because the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and the media and public have the perception that the problem is solved. Also other national and global environmental problems have emerged.

L: Yes. I saw that. There are several things that struck me: the lasting effects of acid rain on soils, for instance. Can you explain that a bit?

CD: Yes. In the 1980s when there was considerable active research, the problem was focused on lakes and streams. Scientists did not think that acid rain could possible affect soils. However since the mid-1990s we now know that acid rain is responsible for leaching large quantities of calcium and magnesium from soil. In areas where the soils are shallow and naturally poor this disturbance is causing health effects to sensitive trees. So far we know that red spruce and sugar maple have been affected. Also this process called soil acidification seems to limit the recover of acid impacted lakes and streams.

L: Ah. Yes. In your report, you mentioned climate change and acid rain. What are the connections?

CD: Acid rain has the most severe impacts in high elevation forests. These areas are also sensitive to changing climate. A warmer climate causes nitric acid to be leached from soil and acidify the soil and water. Our model calculations suggest that this effect may occur over the next 100 years or so.

L: And my last question: This is no longer a local problem, right? These pollutants don't respect national boundaries.

CD: Yes clearly. All the problems we have been discussing are both regional and global problems: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide. These materials can be transported 1000s of miles. Indeed they can be transported across the oceans and globally. All nations contribute to each other’s air pollution problems.

L: Same problems, same solutions too.

CD: You got it!

L: Looks like our time is up. I thank you for your willingness to this on such short notice. Have a good trip to Toronto.

CD: Thanks. It has been fun. Cheers, Charley Driscoll.

L: Cheers!

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