Divergent contributions of acidic and neutralization potential to precipitation acidity across Islet, Urban and Forest sites, northern Taiwan

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

deposition remained stably low. Despite these differences among the three sites, precipitation pH increased significantly at all three sites. At Penjayu and Taipei, pH remained above 5.0 after 2015 and 2020, respectively, whereas at Fushan it did not consistently exceed 5.0 until 2024, indicating a delayed recovery. Our findings suggest that a decreasing acidifying potential, combined with stable or increasing neutralization potential, promoted pH recovery in Penjayu and Taipei. In contrast, a concurrent decline in acidic potential and neutralization potential at Fushan likely constrained recovery. These results indicate that, in addition to reductions in acidifying inputs, cation buffering plays a critical role in the recovery of precipitation pH.