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General Climbing Discussion

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Dogs in Grampians 7-Mar-2012 At 8:04:55 PM Paulie

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On 6/03/2012 wombly wrote:
>One the chalk front, I don't buy the acid sweat hypothesis for a minute.
>A solution of MgCO3 and water, which makes up most of the white powder
>we consume, is strongly basic - pH of 9-10. This alone is probably enough
>to kill off the lichens and moss.

Actually, sorry mate but this is completely wrong...studies have shown that alkaline environments actually increase the growth of Lichens and Bryophytes...while it's proven that acid solutions, even in highly diluted rates will kill this flora...I'd like to hear why you think acid from sweat wouldn't cause the same die back in even a short period of time, particularly in high traffic areas? To qualify this, acid in our sweat usually ranges from as high as 4 on the pH scale (up there with vinegar and acid rain) to 7 (neutral like milk) and as such can be strong enough to cause severe damage to artefacts such as paintings and paper; for this reason, I fail to see why it wouldn't also kill this flora.