The importance of including the pH dependence of sulfate adsorption in a dynamic soil chemistry model

Summary, in English

Sulfate adsorption is an important process when modeling the dynamics of recovery from acidification. In the dynamic soil chemistry model SAFE sulfate adsorption is modeled by a pH and sulfate concentration dependent isotherm. This isotherm has been parameterized by fitting it to data from batch experiments on soil samples using multiple linear regression. The soil samples were from the B-horizon from three sites, two from the Lake Gardsjon area in south-west Sweden and one from southern Poland. The pH dependency of sulfate adsorption is important. The batch experiments show that the adsorbed amount, at a specific sulfate concentration, increases considerably with decreasing pH. This implies that the adsorbed pool of anthropogenic sulfate in soils may remain fairly high during the recovery phase. Although a decrease of sulfate concentration is commonly seen, the modeled pH increase is often slow, and thus delays in the modeled desorption of anthropogenic sulfate can be expected.

• Author: Liisa Fransson; Mattias Alveteg
• Department/s: Departments at LTH; Division of Chemical Engineering
• Publishing year: 2004
• Language: English
• Pages: 349-356
• Publication/Series: Water, Air and Soil Pollution
• Volume: 154
• Issue: 1-4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:WATE.0000022976.01342.2c
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Springer
• Topic: Chemical Engineering
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1573-2932