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How Do Acids And Bases Affect The Environment?

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Ebony Nash Profile
Ebony Nash answered
Acids and bases, as well as their reactions, play an enormous role in our daily lives and are both beneficial and harmful to our health. The reactions play critical roles in our environment and even in our bodies.  If it was not for the effects of acids and bases, oxygen and carbon dioxide transport could not occur in our lungs or cells. However, acids and bases can have a harmful effect on streams, through acid rain.

Acid rain can affect streams through many ways, including rainfall, soils washed into streams, and urban area runoff. Acid rain alters lake/stream chemistry by lowering the pH. Most healthy lakes and streams have a pH between six and eight, while acid rain has a pH less than five. As the rain falls or particulates are deposited, many lake ecosystems become less able to buffer this acid. Many lakes and rivers become more acidic as time goes on, as their neutralisation abilities are compromised. This in turn affects the ecosystem as a whole.

Healthy freshwater ecosystems have a diverse number of species, such as zooplankton, fish, and aquatic birds like loons that depend on the freshwater environment for life. As the pH falls below six, these ecosystems will begin to see a decline in the number of aquatic species, and their populations.
Roger Macario Profile
Roger Macario answered

QUICK ANSWER

Acids and bases affect environment by changing habitats so that they are more favorable to some organisms than others. Acids and bases naturally occur in the environment, and the organisms have adapted to the pH of their local habits over evolutionary time. If the pH of a habitat changes, some organisms  may fail, and others simply flee the habitat.The pH of the air does not change much, so the organisms are only concerned with the pH of the soil and local water. The primary reason that soil pH is important to the terrestrial animals is because soil pH influences which plants live in the area. Some plants may live in high pH soils, while others thrive in low pH. Drinking water must have a pH near the neutral point for most terrestrial animals. Aquatic animals are susceptible to changes in the pH of their water. For fish or frogs that live in small, isolated waters, a change in pH could kill the entire population.

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Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Acids produce acid rain. Bases produce hydroxide for the environment.

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