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The increasing carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere, due to carbon dioxide emissions, results in increasing absorption of CO 2 from the atmosphere into the oceans. [13] This does not affect the ocean's alkalinity [14]: 2252 but it does result in a reduction in pH value (called ocean acidification). [15]
The presence of free hydrogen ions (H +) lowers the pH of the ocean, increasing acidity (this does not mean that seawater is acidic yet; it is still alkaline, with a pH higher than 8). Marine calcifying organisms, such as mollusks and corals, are especially vulnerable because they rely on calcium carbonate to build shells and skeletons. [4]
The measurement of pH can become difficult at extremely acidic or alkaline conditions, such as below pH 2.5 (ca. 0.003 mol/dm 3 acid) or above pH 10.5 (above ca. 0.0003 mol/dm 3 alkaline). This is due to the breakdown of the Nernst equation in such conditions when using a glass electrode.
Acid-neutralizing capacity or ANC in short is a measure for the overall buffering capacity against acidification of a solution, e.g. surface water or soil water.. ANC is defined as the difference between cations of strong bases and anions of strong acids (see below), or dynamically as the amount of acid needed to change the pH value from the sample's value to a chosen different value. [1]
By increasing pH levels, liming helps the habitat return to a similar condition to how it was before acidification. Some techniques are used to mitigate the mining contribution of acidification, like passive treatment through natural biological processes and treatment of the drainage with alkaline materials. [22]
The principal cause of alkaline rain are emissions from factories and waste deposits. Mineral dust containing large amounts of alkaline compounds such as calcium carbonate can also increase the pH of precipitation and contribute to basic rain. [3] Alkaline rain can be viewed as opposite to acid rain.
Alkali, or alkaline, soils are clay soils with high pH (greater than 8.5), a poor soil structure and a low infiltration capacity. Often they have a hard calcareous layer at 0.5 to 1 metre depth. Alkali soils owe their unfavorable physico-chemical properties mainly to the dominating presence of sodium carbonate , which causes the soil to swell ...
The soil pH usually increases when the total alkalinity increases, but the balance of the added cations also has a marked effect on the soil pH. For example, increasing the amount of sodium in an alkaline soil tends to induce dissolution of calcium carbonate , which increases the pH.