Weathering, atmospheric deposition and vegetation uptake: role for ecosystem sensitivity to acid deposition and critical load

Critical loads of acidity represent the maximum acceptable atmospheric deposition for an ecosystem type. Two hundred and forty-one ecosystem types have been defined in France using pedologic, geologic and vegetation data. Weathering rate plays the most important part in soil buffering capacity, but for poor weatherable soils, non-marine atmospheric deposition represents up to 80% of base-cation inputs. Base-cation vegetation uptake decreases significantly the buffering capacity in case of high-productivity forests. Ecosystems combining low weathering rate and low non-marine base-cation deposition with high biomass productivity are the most sensitive to acidification. To cite this article: D. Moncoulon et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).