Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions Toward a Better Understanding of the Ecological Consequences of Fossil Fuel Combustion (1981) / Chapter Skim
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2 Scientific Understanding of Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions: A Historical Overview
2 Scientific Understanding of Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions: A Historical Overview
Pages 9-21
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From page 9... ...
Soon after, in 1779, Ingenhousz proved it was the green parts of plants that were necessary for This chapter was prepared by Eville Gorham. It focuses strongly on acid rain, partly because of the current significance of the problem in relation to fossil fuel combustion, partly because the history of the problem has not been treated adequately elsewhere, and partly because of the author's own involvement with the subject.
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From page 10... ...
The general involvement of soil microorganisms in the biological cycles of the elements was postulated in 1872 by Cohn to account for the breakdown of dead plant material and for the fact that organic manures restored the fertility of soils exhausted by continued
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By the 1890s the existence of heterotrophs, chemoautotrophs, and photoautotrophs was established, together with their ability to use and transform diverse organic or inorganic molecules or both in their energy metabolism. But only recently has much attention been devoted to the circulation through the atmosphere and the biosphere of a variety of gaseous compounds -- such as carbon monoxide, methane, dimethyl sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, and nitrogen dioxide -- which contain biologically significant elements (cf.
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contrasted the ionic composition of rain-fed bog waters with that of fen waters receiving water from the mineral soil, and Gorham later (1961) demonstrated the chemical similarity of bog waters and rain waters.
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The buildup of carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere due to the combustion of fossil fuels has also become a major concern, because of the possibility that it may increase the temperature of the atmosphere and alter the world's climatic patterns quite substantially through the so-called greenhouse effect. The development of our knowledge of this problem has been reviewed by Plass (1956~.
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From page 14... ...
The magnitude of the carbon dioxide release was shown clearly by Keeling (1970~. If continued, the carbon dioxide enrichment and consequent climatic warming could have diverse and serious consequences for the biosphere, including major displacements of agriculture (Kellogg 1978; Committee on Government Affairs 1979; see, however, Idso 1980~.
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(Smith was the first to use the term "acid rain.") the liberation of hydrochloric acid into urban atmospheres by the interaction of sulfuric acid and sodium chloride during or after coal combustion (cf.
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FIGURE 2.1 Chemical composition of rain in the British Isles reported in 1872. SOURCE: Data from Smith (1872)
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By watering soils with Leeds rain and with similarly dilute sulfuric acid, they arrested seed germination and growth and inhibited three aspects of the nitrogen cycle -- ammonification, Vitrification, and nitrogen fixation. Timothy grass under such regimes became distinctly poorer in protein and richer in crude fiber.
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From page 18... ...
, found hydrochloric acid abundant in precipitation near the volcano Vesuvius. Damage to vegetation by sulfur dioxide from metal smelters has a long history.
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Attention was drawn to the problem in the United States by Likens and his associates, beginning early in the 1970s (Likens, Bormann, and Johnson 1972; see also Likens 1976~. These authors noted the likely significance in the United States of nitric acid produced by the further oxidation of nitrogen oxides emitted from gasoline engines.
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The editor of the 1772 edition of Evelyn's "Fumifugium" claimed a marked worsening in the situation over a century, and called for a variety of ameliorative measures: the use of tall smokestacks to spread the smoke into "distant parts," better chimney construction to drive the smoke higher, changed methods of combustion using charred (coked) coal to lessen smoke emission, inducements for industries to move outside the city, and legal prevention of more such building within the city.
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From page 21... ...
21 The development from local, point-source pollution of the kind seen in London or Los Angeles to the broad dispersion of acid rain over large parts of the European and North American continents has come to be recognized as a major anthropogenic perturbation of atmosphere/biosphere interaction
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