The Effects of Acid Rain on Lakes and Trees

The Effects of Acid Rain on Lakes and Trees Acid rain has long been argued by society's most formidable minds. It indirectly destroys ecosystems that surround forests and lakes (Taylor, 26). People need to make decisions dealing with the destruction of nature and the role acid rain plays in it. Acid rain destroys millions of forests and lakes (Taylor, 26 ). Studies show that acid rain is one of the largest contributing factors in the death of forests and lakes. Acid rain indirectly kills millions of acres of forestland each decade. In the 1960s, people found that acid rain fall was unhealthy and damaging to forests (Baines, 20). Acid rain does not kill the trees directly. Acid rain makes the tree weaken and poisons it with toxic substances that are slowly released from the soil (EPA). When the trees weaken from the acid, it has a harder time fighting off adversaries such as fungi, diseases, and frost so subsequently it dies. Around the 1970s the acid rain dilemma got worse, the acid rain has put trees in danger and now they are starting to die off. The effects of acid rain on a tree is shown if it has less foliage, yellow spots and produces many cones (Baines, 22). Secondly, acid rain damages the trees through the soil by releasing metals that harm them even further (Lucas, 72). Acid rain makes the trees lose their leaves, so when the trees try to regrow their leaves, buds come instead, this process is called a panic shoot (M. 15). Large land areas which used to be covered with forests are now gone, dead or dying (Baines, 21). Around the 1980's more than half Kotto 2 of the trees in Germany had signs of acid rain damage (Edmonds, 14). Now it is known that acid rain is one of the biggest contributing factors in the death and deterioration of nature. Lakes support thousands of species of marine life, that's why