Review article
ACID RAIN - A PROBLEM OF THE PRESENT
1995, 53 (1) p. 25-42
Rozelinda Čož-Rakovac, Mato Hacmanjek, Zlatica Teskeredžić, Marija Tomec, Emin Teskeredžić, V Šojat, D Borovečki
Abstract
Acid rains is one of the most relevant problems of the human environment, the result being pollution of the atmosphere caused by ever growing industrial development. It is caused by the freeing of sulphuric oxides and oxygen, which along with certain chemical reactions transfer into sulphate and nitrate, and through wet or dry sediments reach the ground. This has an effect on lakes, rivers, the entire animal and plant kingdom, including all the good creations of mankind. Over a longer time period acid destroy organisms which live in the water of some freshwater ecosystems, depending on local geological characteristics (presence of natural neutralizers of acid in the ground) which makes an area more of less sensitive to acidity. Investigators have determined that the activity of H+ on organisms which live in the water depend differently on species and concentrations of acidity. For many species the problems begin already with pH ≤ 6, and only a few resistant species survive at pH ≤ 4.7. Acidity changes chemical and biochemical tissue composition, decreases the osmoregulation, influences the level of hormones in the blood, has an effect on fish smoltification, and interrupts its reproduction. Acidifying sensitive water ecosystems in the Northern hemisphere corresponds with the increase of acid precipitation. To prevent this problem from spreading even more it is necessary to solve it as soon as possible, either by controlling the release of pollutants into the atmosphere, or improving of the already occurring consequences.