Sulfur that doesn't stay put.Sulfur that doesn't stay put The emission of sulfur compounds from marshes, bogs and other wetlands may account for as much as 30 percent of the sulfur pollutants found in the atmosphere in remote areas of Canada, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. data collected by a team of researchers at the National Water Research Institute in Burlington, Ontario Burlington (2006 population 164,415) is a city located in the Golden Horseshoe, across Lake Ontario and Burlington Bay harbour from Hamilton, in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. . However, the data also suggest that much of this marsh-emitted sulfur may have started out as sulfur emissions from coal-burning power plants or other industrial sources, deposited in the bog by acid rain and then reemitted considerably later in a somewhat different form. "Reemission of previously deposited pollutant sulfur in soils and wetlands may be an important phenomenon that has not been recognized previously,' Jerome O. Nriagu and his colleagues report in the Sept. 4 SCIENCE. "Its role in the continuing acidification acidification a technology used by processors to preserve foods by adding acids (such as acetic, citric, phosphoric, propionic and lactic acid) and thereby reduce the risk of growth of harmful bacteria. of the environment even after reduction of the quantity of anthropogenic an·thro·po·gen·ic adj. 1. Of or relating to anthropogenesis. 2. Caused by humans: anthropogenic degradation of the environment. sulfur emissions should be a matter of concern.' The researchers collected their data over a four-year period by regularly taking precipitation samples at a remote location in northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing. Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it . They also took water samples from selected bogs and marshes to determine dimethyl sulfide Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) or methylthiomethane is a sulfur containing organic chemical compound with formula: (CH3)2S. Dimethyl sulfide in concentrated liquid form is flammable and insoluble with a boiling point of 37°C and a disagreeable odor. concentrations. By measuring variations in the ratio of two sulfur isotopes, they were able to trace the flow of sulfur through the environment. The Canadian study is one of the first to identify the role that inland aquatic ecosystems may play in contributing to atmospheric sulfur levels. Researchers were already aware of the large quantities of sulfur emitted as the result of biological activity in oceans. Nevertheless, in both cases, the impact of human activities often outweighs natural contributions. |
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