A National Environmental Data Network Revealed Through the Study of Acid Rain

Abstract

The topic generally known as acid rain presents a series of data and information challenges to researchers, policy makers, educators, and librarians and information specialists. Acid rain became one of the first and, at the time, one of the largest and most vexing environmental problems of a global scale in terms of both its origins and its solutions. The transport of air pollutants over long distances had been postulated as early as the 17th century. Scientific study of the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere began in earnest in the later half of the 19th century and continues today. This paper examines the development of a national network of environmental data-gathering activities revealed from decades of acid rain research in the United States, ranging from nationally coordinated, interagency research programs to state sponsored ecosystem and sub-ecosystem studies and data monitoring activities.

Key Words:

• Acid precipitation
• acid rain
• data archives
• databases
• ecology
• ecological data
• ecological information
• Long-Term Ecological Research Network
• Man and the Biosphere Program
• National Atmospheric Deposition Program