Forest decline, like this, is a new phenomenon that is directly related to the activities of man on Earth. High altitude defolia
tion is common in the eastern United States, Europe, and Japan due to the effects of A) drought. B) acidic clouds. C) global warming. D) ozone depletion.
Acidic clouds are the reason for the defoliation of the evergreen trees. The clouds produces a mist that hits the trees. This causes the calcium leeching process to start. Once this process starts, the needles start to freeze and thus kills off the needles.
The new needles that start to come in and replace the dead/frozen ones will then die before every getting to reach full growth. This causes the tree tops to die.
High altitude defoliation of evergreen trees is attributed to the presence of acidic clouds. The acidic cloud mist causes calcium leeching which in turn causes freezing damage in current needle growth. Simply put, the new needles die.
