Intense, natural pollution affects Arctic tundra vegetation at the Smoking Hills, Canada
- Dalhousie Univ., Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada)
- Univ. of Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
Long-term, natural emissions of sulfur dioxide and acidic aerosols have had an impact on remote tundra at the Smoking Hills. The emissions have caused plant damage by SO{sub 2} toxicity, and have severely acidified soil and freshwater. At the most intensively fumigated locations closest to the sources of emission, pollution stresses have devegetated the terrestrial ecosystem. The first plants that are encountered along a spatial gradient of decreasing pollution stress are Artemisia tilesii and Arctagrostis latifolia, which dominate a characteristic, pollution-tolerant community. Farther away at moderately polluted sites there are mixed communities with floristic elements of both fumigated and reference, unfumigated tundra. This pattern of ecosystem response to a concatenation of stresses caused by natural air and soil pollution is qualitatively similar to the damage that occurs in the vicinity of anthropogenic point sources of air pollution, such as smelters.
- OSTI ID:
- 6166140
- Journal Information:
- Ecology; (USA), Vol. 71:2; ISSN 0012-9658
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
ACID RAIN
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
FRESH WATER
ACIDIFICATION
SOILS
AIR POLLUTION
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
CALCIUM
MAGNESIUM
PARTICULATES
PLANTS
SMELTERS
STATIONARY POLLUTANT SOURCES
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFURIC ACID
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
TOXICITY
TUNDRA
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
ECOSYSTEMS
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
MATERIALS
METALS
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
POLLUTION
POLLUTION SOURCES
RAIN
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR OXIDES
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
WATER
560300* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
540210 - Environment
Terrestrial- Basic Studies- (1990-)
540310 - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- (1990-)
010900 - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Environmental Aspects