Breathe Clean → Activity 2. An experiment to produce acid rain and study its effect on plants

Breathe Clean

Activity 2. An experiment to produce acid rain and study its effect on plants

You are going to do an interesting laboratory experiment on how acid rain affects plants.

1. Before proceeding, read the information in the following text:

Some air pollutants cause acid rain. Acid rain is a serious threat to the environment and is caused by pollutants in the atmosphere that mix with the rain as it falls.

Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation (snow, hail, fog) that is abnormally acidic, i.e. contains elevated levels of hydrogen ions and has a low pH.

The main cause of acid rain is the burning of fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels for our cars, industry and electricity generation results in harmful emissions such as sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NO_X; the combination of NO and NO₂).

There are also natural causes of acid rain. Decaying vegetation and erupting volcanoes also release chemicals that can cause acid rain, but most acid rain is a product of human activity.

Acid rain is formed when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides mix with water in the atmosphere; a chemical reaction takes place and the result is acid rain. The acid rain then falls on Earth.

The chemical reactions that take place in the atmosphere in acid rain are as follows:

SO₂ + H₂O → H₂SO₃

sulphur dioxide + water → sulphuric acid

SO₃ + H₂O → H₂SO₄

sulphur trioxide + water → sulphuric acid

NO₂ + H₂O → HNO₃

nitrogen dioxide + water → nitric acid

Formation of acid rain.
Source: Internet Geography https://www.internetgeography.net/topics/what-is-acid-rain/