Air Pollution 'Fertilizer' Threatens National Parks

Air Pollution 'Fertilizer' Threatens National Parks

October 15, 2013

"An influx of nitrogen-based pollution is acting as an unwanted fertilizer and is disrupting the ecology of dozens of national parks, according to new research.

Of the 45 U.S. parks the research team studied, 38 were blanketed with high levels of nitrogen-based air pollution from power plants, car exhaust and industrial agriculture, according to the study, which was published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The resulting nitrogen overload could disrupt the nutrient cycling in the soil, fuel algal blooms and change water acidity levels in the country's national parks, the research suggests.

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