Modeling and monitoring of long-term acidification in an upland catchment of the Western Ore Mountains, SE Germany

Modeling and monitoring of acidification patterns in a limed forest catchment in the Ore Mountains, SE Germany are presented. A lumped-parameter model, MAGIC, satisfactorily reproduced the main parameters of stream water chemistry. Despite repeated whole-catchment liming, between 1993 and 1999 stream water pH increased from 4.3 to only 4.6, while calcium concentrations declined slightly. Stream water sulfate concentration declined from 687 to 396 μeq l−1, and the pronounced effect of deposition decline during the 1990s was probably more important than liming.