Regional patterns of soil sulfate accumulation: relevance to ecosystem sulfur budgets

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5390760

Johnson, D. W.; Hornbeck, J. W.; Kelly, J. M.; Swank, W. T.; Todd, D. E.

Analysis of soils from Walker Branch, Camp Branch, and Cross Creek, Tennessee, Coweeta, North Caroline, and Hubbard Brook, New Hamsphire support the hypothesis that watershed sulfur accumulation is due to inorganic sulfate adsorption in soils. Analysis of soils from lysimeter study sites at La Selva, Costa Rico, and Thompson Site, Washington produced similar results. In laboratory adsorption studies, only soils from Coweeta retained substantial (50 to 100%) additional amounts of sulfate in insoluble forms. Soil adsorbed sulfate content and sulfate adsorption capacity were positively correlated with sesquioxide content but negatively correlated with organic matter content. Organic matter apparently blocks sesquioxide adsorption sites, preventing sulfate adsorption in sesquioxide-rich A horizons and Spodosol B/sub 2/ir horizons. This blockage may account for the accummulation of adsorbed sulfate in B horizons in temperate and tropical soils and the susceptibility of New England Spodosols to leaching by H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5390760
• Report Number(s): CONF-791090--6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
510100* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Basic Studies-- (-1989)
510200 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
553000 -- Agriculture & Food Technology
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
ADSORPTION
AIR POLLUTION
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CORRELATIONS
DATA
DATA FORMS
DISSOLUTION
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GRAPHS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
INORGANIC ACIDS
LEACHING
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
RAIN
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOILS
SORPTION
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR CYCLE
SULFURIC ACID
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TABLES
TEMPERATE ZONES
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
TROPICAL REGIONS
WATERSHEDS