Word: soils
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Still, most scientists agree that there is not nearly enough evidence to pin down the cause of the deterioration. Several possible suspects have been considered. Among them: insects, plant disease, poor soil condition and abnormal climatic changes. Experts note that the decline began about the time of the great Northeast drought of the early 1960s. "Drought is undoubtedly a major component of a large part of the decline," says Robert Rosenthal of the EPA. "But it doesn't explain it all. There is pretty good evidence that there are air pollution effects." Plant Pathologist Robert Bruck of North Carolina...
...high altitudes to such trees as the red spruce and Fraser and balsam firs. The summits of Camels Hump and Mount Mitchell are enshrouded for as much as a quarter of the year in clouds, which are loaded with acidic chemicals and toxic heavy metals. Says Arthur Johnson, a soil expert at the University of Pennsylvania: "Vegetation essentially combs polluted moisture droplets out of the clouds." Mountain tops at this altitude are also exposed to high concentrations of ozone and get more rain, which washes chemicals onto the trees. "Most people think of remote mountains as ideal vacation spots that...
Researchers speculate that chemicals may work their damage in several ways. The excess ozone might open the pores of leaves, allowing acid rain to leach vital nutrients. Or acid rain may cause harmful changes in the chemical composition of the soil. Rain may also deposit toxic heavy metals that damage plants' root systems. Says Richard Phipps of the U.S. Geological Survey: "The darn thing is a heck of a lot more complex than we ever thought...
...long way off. Arboreal experts are only now beginning to assess the severity of the problem. The Forest Service, for example, has just started a study of the condition of yellow pine, the South's prime source of commercial timber. At Oak Ridge, botanists are examining samples of soil for traces of metals such as aluminum and zinc. In May, U.S. forest experts will travel to West Germany to compare notes with European scientists; in turn, German researchers will visit the U.S. in June. Says Fred White, staff forester with the North Carolina division of forest resources in Raleigh...
That is as may be; both labels apply. Heaney is very much a product of Ireland's soil, an element he describes as "black butter/ Melting and opening underfoot." And in a land that has produced enough rhymers to people County Mayo, his is the voice that resonates loudest past the Irish Sea to Britain, America and beyond. Heaney's reputation seems to increase geometrically with every poem, starting back in 1966 with the appearance of his first true verse, "Digging." It announced, as William Butler Yeats announced in one of his own early works, that a vocation...