A universal bias in inorganic rainwater chemical composition data

Abstract

In the late 1970s, it was recognised that organic acids contributed to the acidity and ionic content of rainwater, but that these acids had not been detected because they were consumed biologically in the period between rainwater collection and subsequent laboratory analysis. Discussion of consequences for measured rainwater composition has been limited to assessment of pH gain that attends organic acid loss. We show that biological effects on rainwater ionic composition are not restricted to pH alone. Ammonium, potassium, nitrate, sulfate, methanesulfonate, and phosphate ions are also removed biologically, but remain in the rainwater in biomass, implying that most previous rainwater composition studies based on ionic analyses will have systematically underestimated nutrient deposition.