Weathering studies by forest researchers were already underway at the turn of the last century. In connection with acid rain research weathering has attracted renewed attention as it is the major long-term sink for protons in soils.

Weathering rates have been determined with a number of methods among which input—output budgets and the determination of the historical weathering losses in soil profiles are the most commonly adopted. The use of strontium isotopes in conjunction with assuming an analogy between strontium and calcium is another method applied to the problem. Modelling has been done with the MAGIC and PROFILE models.

In spite of the differences in the methods, it is now possible, within fairly narrow limits, to estimate weathering rates for typical Scandinavian landscape types by knowing a few basic facts like mineralogy, soil texture and soil depth. The most sensitive environments are rocky areas with very thin soil covers found commonly in Norway and in coastal tracts of Sweden and Finland. They are likely to have weathering rates of 5–20 mequiv. m-2 a-1 depending on the mineralogy. Till areas with a soil cover of about 1–5 m have weathering rates of about 20–30 mequiv. m-2 a-1 if the soil till is derived from acid granites or gneisses.