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Acidification is a process during which acidity of abiotic components of the environment is increased. Acidification of soils includes several chemical processes. Soil reaction expresses the acidic-basic equilibrium and is determined by nature of acid-basic reactions. The value of pH must not be the only criterion for the evaluation of acidity and acidification. Penetration of acid ions or acid-forming products into soil can have adverse effect upon soil without changing the values of pH. Should carbonates are present in soils they are the first components, which inhibit penetration of acid ions into soil. Basic cations of the sorption complex are the main mechanism of inhibition in soils without carbonates. We are taking into account the high share of acid reacting portions of emissions (SO2, N0x, fly ash from heating plant) and alkaline reacting dusts from sintering, blast furnaces and steelworks. It can be concluded that soil has acid reaction as a result of immissions with all destructive effects. The increased deposition of sulphur initiates evident disrupting effects with special relation to properties of soil.
Harmful substances, which are present in air, act on plants and forest wood species either directly or as atmospheric precipitation infiltrating the soil, where they change the chemical composition of soil, and in this way they affect the root system of plants and wood species. On the basis of evaluation of results obtained from permanently monitored areas according to forest vegetation stages we can state that soils of lower forest vegetation stages, which are present in the Košice Conurbation, are less affected by acidification. Deciduous trees, which form the main component of the 2nd and 3rd forest vegetation stages, considerably participate in general improvement of the health status of forests. We can say that the health status of forests is stabilized in the Košice Conurbation. The average defoliation of deciduous trees is as follows: beech - 18%, oak - 28%, hornbeam - 14%. Hornbeam and oak are the least damaged trees. Fluctuations in individual years are caused mainly by climatic factors.
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| Page Editor: Lucia Byšická |
This page was last updated: 20.2.2002 |