Can plants directly use sulfuric acid?

Question

In the explanation of the sulfur cycle, it is often said that sulfur moves from the atmosphere to the ground by acid rain in the form of sulfuric acid. Can plants directly use sulfuric acid to assimilate sulfur?

Answer 1

Hello, thank you for taking the time to post your question!

The biological pathway for this process to occur isn’t available directly … it’s possible for acid rain to contain sulfur that eventually becomes available to plants as sulfate, but the acid itself would not be a direct source.

Hopefully that gets you moving in the right direction! Feel free to reach out for a lesson if you have any questions about the process to solve beyond that! :)