National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program Research Articles

Acid rain report focuses on forests

Recent research on acid precipitation yields “increasing general concern about possible effects on forests,” according to the second annual report of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). Prepared by the Interagency Task Force on Acid Precipitation, the report outlines the accomplishments of the national program during fiscal 1983, summarizes the current state of scientific knowledge (including a change in the baseline acidity of precipitation), and describes the outlook for current progress by federally funded acid precipitation research. Chris Bernabo is the program's executive director.NAPAP's annual report agrees with the finding of a National Research Council (NRC) committee that a linear relationship exists between sulfur dioxide emissions and wet deposition of sulfate (Eos, July 26, 1983, p. 475). NRC's Committee on Atmospheric Transport and Chemical Transformation in Acid Precipitation, which issued its report last year, was chaired by Jack G. Calvert of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.