Soil/Water Acidification and the Potential for Reversibility

To put the Loch Fleet project into scientific perspective, some theoretical background is needed. Loch Fleet is a recently acidified system. It once sustained a small trout population which had died out by the 1970s, and it is known that water quality at that time was not suitable for trout (see Chapter 3). Diatom stratigraphy has also demonstrated that the loch has become more acid in recent years (see Chapter 14). What processes caused it to become more acid? How has acidification there been related to acid deposition and change in land use? Why is catchment manipulation necessary — will the lake not simply recover as acid deposition declines under the influence of present emission control legislation? This chapter sets out to answer these questions and to give a basic understanding of acidification and recovery mechanisms.