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Forty to fifty percent decreases in acidic deposition through the 1980s and 1990s led to partial recovery of acidified surface waters in the northeastern United States; however, the limited number of studies that have assessed soil change found increased soil acidification during this period. From existing data, it's not clear whether soils continued to worsen in the 1990s or if recovery had begun. To evaluate possible changes in soils through the 1990s, soils in six red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) stands in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, first sampled in 1992 to 1993, were resampled in 2003 to 2004. The Oa-horizon pH increased (P < 0.01) at three sites, was marginally higher (P < 0.1) at one site, and lower (P < 0.05) at the New York site. Total C concentrations in Oa horizons decreased (P < 0.05) at sites where the pH increased, but the cause is uncertain. Exchangeable Al concentrations in Oa horizons decreased (P < 0.05) 20 to 40% at all sites except New York, which showed no change. The AI decrease can be attributed to decreased deposition of SO42-, which decreased the mobility of Al throughout the upper soil profile. Results indicate a nascent recovery driven largely by vegetation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased aluminum (Al) solubility in soil waters due to acid precipitation has aroused considerable interest in the problem of Al toxicity in plants. In the present study, an in vitro suspension culture system of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don was used to analyze the effects of aluminum on several biochemical processes in these cells. The aliphatic polyamines, spermine and spermidine, and their precursor, putrescine, have been implicated in a number of stress responses of plants. Addition of 0.2, 0.5 or 1.0 mM AICl3 to cells cultured for 3 days caused a small but significant increase in cellular levels of putrescine at 4 h followed by a sharp decline by 16 h. There was no further decline in levels of putrescine during the next 32 h. Spermidine levels did not change appreciably compared to those in the control cultures. However, spermine levels increased by 2-3 fold at 24 and 48 h. Cellular activities of arginine decarboxylase (ADC; EC 4.1.1.19) and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (SAMDC: EC 4. 1.1.50) were both inhibited by 20-25% at 4 and 7 h. Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC: EC 4.1.1.17) was less than 10% of ADC activity at all times. Whereas all concentrations of Al caused a slight decrease in total cell number, cell viability was affected only by 1.0 mM Al. There was a decrease in the cellular levels of Ca, Mg, Na, K, Mn, P and Fe in the cells treated with Al at 4 h, but a significant increase by 16 and 24 h. The results presented here suggest that both the absolute amounts of Al and the length of exposure to it are important for cell toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendrochemical and biochemical markers link stress in apparently healthy red spruce trees (Picea rubens) to acidic deposition. Acidic deposition to spruce forests of the northeastern USA increased sharply during the 1960s. Previous reports related visible damage of trees at high elevations to root and soil processes. In this report, dendrochemical and foliar biochemical markers indicate perturbations in biological processes in healthy red spruce trees across the northeastern USA. Previous research on the dendrochemistry of red spruce stemwood indicated that under uniform environmental conditions, stemwood concentrations of Ca and Mg decreased with increasing radial distance from the pith. For nine forest locations, frequency analysis shows that 28 and 52% of samples of red spruce stemwood formed in the 1960s are enriched in Ca and Mg, respectively, relative to wood formed prior to and after the 1960s. This enrichment in trees throughout the northeastern USA may be interpretable as a signal of increased availability of essential cations in forest soils. Such a temporary increase in the availability of Ca and Mg could be caused by cation mobilization, a consequence of increased acidic deposition. During cation mobilization,essential Ca and Mg as well as potentially harmful Al become more available for interaction with binding sites in the soil and absorbing roots. As conditions which favor cation mobilization continue, Ca andMg can be leached or displaced from the soil. A measure of the interaction between Ca and Al is the Al/Ca binding ratio (molar charge ratio of exchangeable Al to exchangeable Ca). As the Al/Ca binding ratioin the root zone increased from 0.3 to 1.9, the foliar concentrationof the biochemical stress marker putrescine also increased from 45 to 145 nm g-1. The correlation of the putrescine concentration to the Al/Ca binding ratio (adj. r2 = 0.68, P< 0.027) suggests that foliar stress may be linked to soil chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]