Question:
Do the affects of acid rain take a long time to develop or does it have a
quick affect? Also if acid rain does develop in a lake, would insects be the
last to live?
Replies:
It can take a long time for acid rain to change the acidity of a lake because
the lake has a certain capacity to neutralize the acid with basic chemicals
like calcium carbonate from limestone. Once that natural buffering capacity
is exceeded, however, the impact of changed acidity on sensitive organisms is
fairly swift. Insects are less sensitive than fish, so they would persist
longer than fish.
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