acid rain and carbon cycle?

[b1163]

How does acid rain affect the carbon cycle?
i dont need too much details, just a sentence or two. thanks

[JackBean]

I would mention instability if carbonic acid or even hydrogencarbonate.

[Crucible]

Remember the acids other than Carbonic ( e.g. Sulphuric ) that can make rain acid. Action is different.
When they talk about acid rain, then, especially historically, it's good to remember that they might not have been talking only about carbonic.

[JackBean]

well, H2CO3 doesn't contribute to acid rains, so it's kind of irrelevant I was going for something else.

[aptitude]

Jackbean, do you mean that acid rain reacts with limestone to form carbonic acid, which decomposes into H2O and CO2?

[JackBean]

not really lime, the rain is not that acidic, but stones and plants are not the only carbon storages

[Crucible]

well, H2CO3 doesn't contribute to acid rains, so it's kind of irrelevant I was going for something else.

What do you mean "doesn't contribute" ?

[Crucible]

What is wrong with this from wiki? One might like to go into detail wrt to issues over "alkalinity", "basicity", perhaps, but wrt to carbonic acid being "irrelevant", I don't get it.

"Acid rain" is a popular term referring to the deposition of wet (rain, snow, sleet, fog, cloudwater, and dew) and dry (acidifying particles and gases) acidic components. Distilled water, once carbon dioxide is removed, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7 are alkaline. “Clean” or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of over 5.7, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, but unpolluted rain also contains other chemicals. A common example is nitric acid produced by electric discharge in the atmosphere such as lightning. [1] Carbonic acid is formed by the reaction

H2O (l) + CO2 (g) is in equilibrium with H2CO3 (aq)

Carbonic acid then can ionize in water forming low concentrations of hydronium and carbonate ions:

H2O (l) + H2CO3 (aq) is in equilibrium with HCO3− (aq) + H3O+ (aq)

Acid deposition as an environmental issue would include additional acids to H2CO3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain#External_links

[JackBean]

this:

Distilled water, once carbon dioxide is removed, has a neutral pH of 7.

distilled water does have pH 7 without removing anything, since distilled water should be pure, w/o any CO2

Anyway, CO2 is not the main acidifying factor. At least, if we speak about industrial pollution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain# ... dification

The most important gas which leads to acidification is sulfur dioxide. Emissions of nitrogen oxides which are oxidized to form nitric acid are of increasing importance due to stricter controls on emissions of sulfur containing compounds.

[Crucible]

this:

Distilled water, once carbon dioxide is removed, has a neutral pH of 7.

distilled water does have pH 7 without removing anything, since distilled water should be pure, w/o any CO2

There is a world of difference between "should be" and "is", Jack
The CO2 in the condensation tube goes right back into the water. Often the pH of distilled water is below 6.
Wiki can hardly be faulted for mentioning it that way.
As well, if distilled water is pure, then why does industry or lab sometimes demand "double distilled" ?

[JackBean]

no, pH of freshly distilled water is pretty close to 7, but if you let it stand for some time, it will drop, because it absorbs some CO2 from air.
Anyway, CO2 is not the main cause of acid rains.