Franco 1

Nicholas Franco
Professor Tammy Parece
FYE Natural Resources & Environment
29 September 2014
Annotated Literature Review
Problem Statement
Since the early 1900s, the Shenandoah National Park (SNP) has attracted visitors from all
over Virginia who want to take advantage of the many activities that the park has to offer. Some
of these activities include hiking to one of the various cascades that are located within the park,
backcountry and wilderness camping, and observing the local flora and fauna in their habitat. At
first glance, it may seem like the National Park Service (NPS) has been successful in preserving
the natural resources of the Shenandoah National Park, but there is one main threat to the local
environment: acid rain. This environmental problem is a particular concern for the park because
acid rain has the potential to destroy ecosystems, pollute many of the local bodies of water, and
alter the pH levels of soil. The Shenandoah National Park will continue to be threatened by acid
rain until national park managers fully understand how acid rain is formed, how acid rain can be
prevented, and how acid rain can be treated.
Five Axioms of Sustainability
One of the Five Axioms of Sustainability that most relates to my problem statement is the
fifth axiom of sustainability. The fifth axiom states that, sustainability requires that substances
introduced into the environment from human activities be minimized and rendered harmless to
biosphere functions. This axiom directly relates to my problem statement because the increase
in fossil fuel emissions has produced more acid rain in recent years. In order to reduce acid rain,
the fifth axiom argues that humans need to eliminate all fossil fuel emissions being introduced
into the environment, in order to prevent acid rain from forming, which is currently negatively
impacting the biosphere in the Shenandoah National Park.
Ten Sources
1st
In my research, I found a considerable number of sources that either relates to acid rain or
the Shenandoah National Park, but not both at the same time. The article summarizes the science
behind acid rain and then uses this information to talk about how the Shenandoah National Park
is affected by this environmental problem. The source also uses a number of different models in
order to make predictions about how the park is going to react to the increase in acid rain that is
expected to occur during the next few years. Despite the fact that the article is short, the material
within the piece is very concise and contains statistics to support its argument.

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2nd
I chose this article because it discusses a variety of experiments that were conducted in
the Shenandoah National Park, to show how vulnerable the local bodies of water are to episodic
acidification. This article goes into depth about the history of acidification in the park and talks
about how the problem has become more severe in recent years. This is an extremely important
resource for my paper because it is very specific and refers to a variety of different studies that
were conducted in the Shenandoah National Park. These studies talk about specific locations in
the park where stream water samples were taken over an extended time period. The source also
discusses different models that have been used to predict where episodic acidification is going to
occur in the park and how severe the problem will be. The only matter that this article does not
really mention is how acid rain can be prevented or treated in the Shenandoah National Park.
3rd
I decided to use this source because it specifically mentions how acid rain affects certain
organisms located in the Shenandoah National Park. This article targets how invertebrates react
to episodic acidification of their natural habitat. This is extremely important because none of the
other sources that I found talk about how specific organisms are affected by this environmental
problem. The other sources usually discuss how organisms in the Shenandoah National Park are
affected as a whole. This article even goes as far as to compare the findings of their research with
those of competing scientific studies and provides statistics which proves that their experiments
are the most reliable.
4th
While conducting my research, I found a variety of different sources that talk about the
effects of acid rain in the short term. This source is unique because it goes in-depth about long
term changes in the acidification of streams in the Shenandoah National Park. The article uses
data that has been collected over the past few years and uses this data to potentially show how
the Shenandoah National Park will suffer if acid rain continues to occur. One problem with this
source is that the information is broad and it does not really go into depth about the arguments
made. Like many other sources, it article does not talk about methods to combat the problem of
acid rain and episodic acidification. Despite this, it provides information that a lot of the other
sources have lacked thus far, specifically the short term effects of acid rain on the environment.
5th
This article is different from the others because it is primarily about how the Shenandoah
National Park is recovering from acidification due to acid rain. The sources talks about different
data sets that were collected during a variety of experiments. This data was then analyzed and the
authors made different conclusions, but the basic argument is that the Shenandoah National Park
is slowly recovering from the effects of acid rain. However, the park will not recover if more the
problem continues. This will prove to be problematic because many scientists are predicting that
the occurrence of acid rain will become more frequent in the years to come.

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I decided to use this article because it is significantly different than any other source
discussed previously. This article is imperative to my research paper because it is dedicated to
talking about what efforts have been used to address the issue of acid rain. The importance of
this article is its primary focus on the different types of legislation and regulations which have
been used over the past few decades. The author considers what has and has not been successful
in combating acid rain on a global scale which is different from any of the other sources used for
this paper. One major problem that I discovered is that the author mainly focuses on efforts to
prevent acid rain during the late 20th century and does not mention recent efforts to solve the
problem.
7th
I choose this article because it specifically talks about the issue of acid rain in the eastern
part of the United States. This is important because the majority of the sources that I have found
usually talks about extreme cases of acid rain in places such as Canada and China. It focuses on
how acid rain is formed in the United States which is slightly different due to the fact that many
conditions are different here, than any other place around the globe. However, the author does
not provide specific information about how to address the problem which seems to be a common
issue with many of the sources that I have found thus far.
8th
During my research for this paper, I found a variety of different articles and books that
addressed how acid rain affects the water in the Shenandoah National Park. I was excited to find
this particular source because it addresses how acid rain affects soil in the park. The source talks
about different soil samples which were taken in different areas of the park, during a study. The
author then mentions how acid rain in the Shenandoah National Park has caused soil degradation
in some places. Just like many of the other research articles, the author has statistics and data to
prove his argument, but he does not present any ideas on how to treat the problem of acid rain in
the park.
9th
I believe that this article will help me during my research paper because it is the only
reliable source that I could find that addresses how acid rain affects plant health. Even though
this source is not specific to the Shenandoah National Park, it is still applicable because acid rain
usually affects plants in the same manner. This article is very detailed and contains very specific
information about how some plant species absorb the particles in acid rain which interrupts plant
growth. The main parts of the article that truly peaked my interest was the discussion about what
forest management strategies have been used in addressing this environmental issue. This article
was of a particular interest to me because I found it interesting to learn about how plants can be
directly affected by acid rain.

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10th
I decided to use this article because it is the only other source that I could find that talks
about how acid rain affects soil health. Because this article does not specifically talk about the
Shenandoah National Park, some of the information may not apply to my research paper, but I
feel like the majority of the information will. The source contains a lot of specific information
about how different types of soils react to acid rain and how the problem can leach nutrients out
of the soil. This can prove to be problematic because it makes the soil less likely to support life.
This would be devastating to the Shenandoah National Park because treatment would take an
extremely long time to start working and would cost a great deal of money.
Bibliography
1st
Rice K, Deviney F, Olson G (2007) Acid rain in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. U.S.
Geological Survey. Accessed. 28 September 2014.
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/gpo7154/FS2007-3057.pdf.
2nd
Rice K, Deviney F, Hornberger G, Webb J (2006) Predicting the Vulnerability of Streams to
Episodic Acidification and Potential Effects on Aquatic Biota in Shenandoah National
Park, Virginia. U.S. Geological Survey. 2005-5259.
3rd
Feldman R, Connor E (1992). The relationship between pH and community structure of
invertebrates in streams of the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, U.S.A. Freshwater
biology. Oxford, 1992 Volume 27, Issue 2.
4th
Webb J, Miller-Marshall L, Webb J (1995). Long-Term Changes in Episodic Acidification of
Streams in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, U.S.A. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Volume 85, Issue 517.
5th
Galloway J, Norton S, Church M (1983). Freshwater acidification from atmospheric deposition
of sulfuric acid: A conceptual model. American Chemical Society. Volume 17, Issue 11.
6th
Claussen E (1991). Acid Rain: The Strategy. EPA Journal. Volume 17, Issue 1.

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7th
Helme N, Neme C (1991). Acid Rain: The Problem. EPA Journal. Volume 17, Issue 1.
8th
Sullivan T, Cosby B, Webb J, Dennis R, Bugler A, Deviney F (2006). Stream water acid-base
chemistry and critical loads of atmospheric sulfur deposition in Shenandoah National
Park, Virginia. Business Media B.V. Volume 137, Issue 85.
9th
Johnson D, Turner J, Kelly J (1982). The Effects of Acid Rain on Forest Nutrient Status. Water
Resources Research. Volume 18, Issue 3.
10th
Krug E, Frink C (2010). Acid Rain on Acid Soil: A New Perspective. Accessed. 28 September
2014. http://gen2.ca/DBHS/ScholarlyArticles/Katherine%20Leiva.pdf.