Student Number: 1595137

THE CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RESTORATION OF ACIDIFIED STREAMS

Acidification of streams is one of the major problems facing freshwater
ecosystems today. Short-term acid episodes or long-term acidification directly
affects acid-sensitive invertebrates, snails, crayfish, clams and freshwater
shrimps (kland and kland, 1986; Muniz, 1990; Ormerod, 2005). Acidification
has been found as the main culprit for the loss of fish in significant parts of
Norway and Sweden (Howells and Brown, 1992; Muniz, 1990). Acid waters
release toxic amount of Al3+ which damages internal organs of fishes and
negatively affecting fish eggs and fries (Rosseland and Henriksen, 1990).
Acidified streams are characterised by reduced density and species richness,
potentially resulting in major loss of biodiversity.
This essay will discuss about chemical restoration, particularly liming, and the
subsequent biological restoration of acidified rivers; its impact and effectiveness.
It is of high significance to determine the causes of stream acidification before
introducing restoration solutions. Atmospheric deposition or acid rain is one of
the prime cause of freshwater acidification (Gee & Stoner, 1989)(Driscoll et al.,
2001). The main acidifying substances are the sulphur and nitrogen oxides (SOx
and NOx), and ammonia, derived mostly from commercial agriculture (UKAWMN,
2001; Driscoll et al., 2001). SOx and NOx may come from natural sources like
volcanoes, oceans, biological decay, lightning and forest fires; and anthropogenic
sources like burned coal and petroleum fuels (UKAWMN, 2001) (EPA, 2016). Acid
deposition can be classified as dry deposition of air pollutants or wet
deposition of sulphuric and nitric acids. Improper disposal of waste such as acid
mine drainage also lowers pH levels in rivers. Although acid deposition is a
major factor in aquatic acidification it can still be mitigated if there is a high
buffering system by the vegetation and soil (Gee & Stoner, 1989). Livestock
introduction to river catchment also lowers river pH by adding large amounts of
nitrates through urine to the soil which then reacts to produce nitric acid that is
later leached to the water systems (Martins et al., 2014). Aside from acid
deposition, buffering and livestock introduction, afforestation by conifers also
lowers river since forest canopies to capture more sulphur and nitrogen
pollutants from the atmosphere than shorter types of vegetation which is then
released to the soil through plant-soil interactions (Department of the
Environment, 1991 as cited by Forestry Commisssion, 2014)
Sudden drop in fish population in Scandinavian lakes in the 1970s was found out
to be caused by lower pH due to acid deposition (UKAWMN, 2001; Bradley and
Ormerod, 2002). Similar events also took place in UK and US streams and lakes
thus urging the respective governments to find ways to restore freshwater fish
populations through lobbying by anglers which eventually became the start of
present and on-going, chemical and biological restoration of acidified streams
(Howells and Brown, 1992). Restoration, in freshwater systems, is defined by
Roni and Beechie (2013) as a return of an aquatic system or habitat to its
original or undisturbed state. One of the earlier acid restoration projects were
done on Scandinavian lakes and streams (Howells and Brown, 1992; UKAWMN,
2001).
Minimizing SOx and NOx emission are one of the major solutions in mitigating
stream acidification (Hildrew and Ormerod, 1995; Gee & Stoner, 1989). Another
solution also is proper land-use. Afforestation of catchment with conifers lowers

Student Number: 1595137

soil pH. Tree planting can enhance acidification by the scavenging of acid
deposition, base cation uptake, the scavenging and concentration of sea salts,
soil drying and the formation of an acid litter layer at the soil surface (Forestry
Commission, 2014).
Aside from the abovementioned solutions, a short-term method is the direct
chemical restoration of streams by spreading calcium carbonate (liming) of
catchment or lakes. It has already been used operationally in the UK particularly
in the Llyn Brianne catchments and in Scandinavia (UKAWMN, 2001; Howells, G.
and Brown, D. 1992). The most common liming material is ground limestone
(Clair and Hindar, 2005). Lake liming, wherein liming agent is directly dumped to
the lake to increase pH of the lake and its outlet streams, has been done ever
since the early reports of freshwater acidification in Scandinavia. Each year 30
000 - 50 000 tonnes are spread in Norwegian rivers and lakes (Norwegian
Environment Agency, 2016). On the other hand, catchment liming has
demonstrated to be effective in reducing Al 3+ in catchment soils (Clair and
Hindar, 2005). Mant et al. (2013) suggested that liming might be advocated by
the European Union (EU) due to the Water Framework Directive requiring
member nations to reach or maintain good ecological status of their surface
waters.

Figure 1. Lake Liming in Norway (image taken from Norwegian Environment Agency)

Immediate and medium term impacts of liming have been reported. Monteith
(2005) stated that catchment liming in Wales showed first clear evidence of
chemical recovery from acidification at a national scale. In summer 1987,
catchment liming of Llyn Brianne was reported to have increased mean pH from
5.2 to >6.5 since treatment (Welsh Water, 1988 as cited by Gee and Stoner,
1989).
The biological recovery of an acidified river is always preceded by chemical
recovery (Driscoll et al., 2001). Increasing stream pH to circumneutral levels is
expected to increase stream biodiversity to its original or near-original state
(Howells, G. and Brown, D., 1992). Liming projects in UK, Europe and USA have
been accompanied by increase in fish population and acid-sensitive invertebrates
(Mant et al., 2013). In Enningdal, a watershed shared by Norway and Sweden,
crustaceans were observed to respond better than fishes to improved water
quality after more than 20 years of liming (Hesthagen et al., 2007).
Reintroduction of salmon and brown trout were found to thrive after being absent
in the watershed in the 1980s. The salmon catch has increased from 5 tonnes

Student Number: 1595137

prior to liming in the early 1980s and up to 40 tonnes the recent years (North
Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, 2005).

Figure 2. Trends in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at 3 UKAWMN lakes (image taken from
UKAWMN (2001)

Despite liming has been found to increase pH in acidified streams and lakes in UK
and Norway (Mant et al., 2013), in some parts of Llyn Brianne, liming was
suggested to increase the dissolve organic carbon (DOC) (Figure 1) (UKAWMN,
2001). DOC offsets the direct effects of liming by providing additional acidity.
Liming of catchment without existing knowledge of existing ecosystems may be
detrimental especially on naturally oligotrophic, base-poor, and of high
conservation ecosystems (Ormerod, 1989; Woodin & Skiba, 1990; Farmer, 1992
as cited by Buckton &Ormerod, 1996)
The mixing zone that occurs where an acidic tributary enters a limed river can be
highly toxic to the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) and brown trout (Salmo trutta
L.) in the limed River Audna, southern Norway (tland and Barlaup, 1995). Acid
episodes may contribute to slow biological recovery. Some stream diatoms are
highly sensitive to short-term acidification (Hirst et al., 2004) as well insects. .
This is supported by Lepori and Ormerod (2005) wherein they observed that the
spring distribution of Baetis alpinus in acid sensitive parts of the Alps directly
reflects the toxicity of acid runoff during snowmelt. The study also demonstrated
that even mild episodic acidification can have significant impact in Alpine
streams for highly acid-sensitive insects like the B. alpinus. Previously held belief
that only limited dispersal hinders biological recovery from acidification was
refuted by a study in the Llyne Brianne by Masters et al.(2007). The study states
that aside from insect mating behaviour, acid episodes are also involved in the
delayed macroinvertebrate increase in limed catchments.
Acid episodes sometimes occur due to base cation dilution to precipitation, sea
salt inputs and NO3- pulses as was observed in Afon Gwy (Evans et al., 2008b). A
related study by Evans et al (2008a) showed that although sulphur
concentrations have declined, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) have increased
which resulted in increased organic acidity thus offsetting the benefits of a
decrease in mineral (sulphate) acidity.
Between 1989 and 1998, UKAWMN reported a slow decline in sulphate
concentrations in some catchments in Wales and England despite the significant
reduction of sulphur oxides in the UK. UKAWMN (2001) attributed this to

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catchments releasing stored sulphate, which has accumulated within them over
the past 150 years. Climatic changes like droughts may cause previously inert
sulphur compounds, stored deep in catchment soils, to re-oxidise as sulphate
which subsequently increase sulphate concentration temporarily once rain
returns (UKAWMN, 2001). There is also uncertainty about how the acidified
stream recovery process will be influenced by future nitrogen deposition and
anthropogenic climate change (Forestry Commission, 2014).
Chemical and biological restoration of acidified streams just like any restoration
projects are not straightforward. This is due to the fact that there are several
aspects needed to be considered like acid episodes, land-use management,
disturbance caused by restoration, climate and other abiotic factors (Ormerod,
2004) aside from biotic factors such as dispersal (Petersen et al., 2004),
colonisation, competition, (Frame, 2009) (Berger 2006) among others. Though
liming has immediate positive impacts nevertheless we should be cautious also
of its downsides like risking of liming of naturally base-poor ecosystems,
uncertainties related to climate and climate change; and its variable impacts on
different acidified streams (e.g. negative impacts on fish and invertebrates (Mant
et al., 2013).

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