Researchers have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that causes increased forest water use, advances understanding of soil biogeochemical control of forest water cycles and highlights threats to plants from water stress under acid deposition, according to a new study.
Researchers have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that causes increased forest water use, advances understanding of soil biogeochemical control of forest water cycles and highlights threats to plants from water stress under acid deposition, according to a new study.
In a study published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers report the mechanism works this way: Sulfuric and nitric acid fall to the ground when fossil fuels are burned, causing acidification of the soil. When that happens, a significant amount of soil calcium washes out of the soil, and then plants suffer from calcium deficiency. Calcium deficiency causes the plants to intensify their use of water.
Lixin Wang, an associate professor in the School of Science at IUPUI, is the senior author of this research, and his Ph.D. student Matthew Lanning is the first author. Lanning and Wang are both in the school's Department of Earth Sciences, an Indiana University program.
This research is funded by the National Science Foundation's Hydrological Sciences program. Other authors of the research team include Todd Scanlon and Howard Epstein at the University of Virginia, Matthew Vadeboncoeur at the University of New Hampshire, Mary Beth Adams at the United States Forest Service, and Daniel Druckenbrod at Rider University.
Read more at Indiana University
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