Stem growth reduction in mature Sitka spruce trees exposed to acid mist

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) Vol. 96; no. 2; pp. 185 - 193
• Main Authors: Crossley, Alan, Sheppard, Lucy J., Cape, J.Neil, Smith, Rognvald I., Harvey, Frank J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.01.1997; Elsevier
• Subjects: acid deposition; acid mist; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Effects of pollution and side effects of pesticides on plants and fungi; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; phytotoxicity; Picea sitchensis; Sitka spruce; stem growth; timber yield; United Kingdom; Scotland; Great Britain; Europe; Sitka spruce; timber yield; acid mist; stem growth; Picea sitchensis; Trunk; Growth; Plant leaf; Sulfuric acid; Particle; Wettability; Softwood forest tree; Gymnospermae; Air pollution; Coniferales; Spermatophyta; Yield; Acid mist; Ammonium Nitrates
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/S0269-7491(97)00022-5

An eighteen-year-old clone of Sitka spruce ( Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) growing in the field was used to evaluate the whole tree response of ‘mature’ Sitka spruce to acid mist treatment. The mist, an equimolar mixture of H 2SO 4 and NH 4NO 3 at pH 2.5 with or without particles (soda glass ballotini < 20 μm diameter), was applied twice weekly (equivalent to 4 mm precipitation week −1) throughout the growing season, May–November 1990–1992. The annual dose of S, N, H applied as mist (at 51, 48 and 3.3 kg ha −1, respectively) was 2.5 times that measured in the Scottish uplands. Throughout the experiment there was no evidence of visible injury symptoms, yet there was a highly significant reduction (p < 0.02) in the stem-area increment relative to the stem area at the start, measured using vernier dendrometer bands. There was no significant difference between the (acid mist + particle) and the acid mist only treatments. The mean relative stem-area increment over two complete growing seasons (1991–1992) was 65% for control trees, but only 53% for acid-misted trees.