Aim of the task
This task shows you, that simple chemical textbook knowledge allows for extensive ecological conclusions. It may amaze you that we applied a simple neutralization reaction to calculate the lime requirement of complex forest ecosystems. However, one must be aware that even most complex ecosystems cannot violate basic rules of chemistry and physics. Therefore the obtained result gives a frame of the lime requirement on a great spatial scale (e.g the whole state of Baden-Württemberg). The result should not be misunderstood as a decision aid for individual sites (some hectares). A lime application may be obsolete if for example an individual site hosts rarely occurring, protected plants which are dependent on extreme soil acidity.
On the other side, put yourself in the forest chief´s shoes in the state of Baden-Württemberg! Holding this position you have responsibility for 500.000 ha coniferous stands with a conservatively estimated acid input of 2 kMol H+ per year and hectare. Soil scientists convinced you that by bulking the lime dosages to 3 tons per hectare the side effects of lime application are controlled and are much more less than the side effects of “doing nothing”. If you want to be sure that soil acidity status is not downgraded, you should know the magnitude of the yearly cumulated area of lime application in Baden-Württemberg at the return cycle where a complete compensation of acid inputs is achieved.
