Buffering capacities and effects or river substrates during acidic episodes

Abstract

Experimental work in specially made channels has shown that moss (Nardia compressa and Fontinalis dalecalica) exposed to running water act as buffering agents against pH variations, both up and down. Ion exchange (H+ for cations) is responsible for the buffering. The most important cations in the buffering process are Ca and Al. Under less acidic to neutral conditions the moss regenerates its buffer capacity by adsorbing the same cations from the stream water.