Rates of acid deposition and their interaction with forest canopy and soil in two beech forest ecosystems on limestone and Triassic sandstone soils in N. Germany

From deposition measurements, for the beech forest on limestone soil, it was calculated that about 60 % of deposited H+ ions from the atmosphere were buffered through the forest canopy prior to leaching on to the soil surface, compared to only 33% for the acid soil ecosystem. Soil internal proton production, as expected, was lower (1.5 keq. ha−1. a−1) in the acid soil than the calcareous soil ecosystem (15.3 keq. ha−1. a−1 ). Two aspects of soil acidification are discussed; leaching of base cations from soil and release of toxins.