Acidification and release of nutrients from organic matter — a model analysis

A simple, phenomenological model is proposed to describe the behaviour of nett mineralization of nitrogen from the soil organic matter.Experimental evidence shows that nett mineralization of nitrogen is increased following artificial acidification of soil forests. The model seems to describe appropriately this phenomenon and some testable predictions are derived from it. These predictions seem to give a clue to the intriguing difficulty of establishing effects of acid rain in coniferous forest ecosystems.A discussion is also given on how the model can be extended to nutrient elements other than nitrogen.