Abstract
As is well known the acid-base content of lake water is composed of strong base or acid, weak acids (mainly fulvic acid) and carbonic acid. Recently Lee (1980) has calculated the acidity constants and the concentrations of the weak acids in a number of lake water samples. In this paper a method for the evaluation of the remaining concentration of strong base or acid and of carbonic acid has been described. Applied to the previously mentioned lake water samples it has given the following results: The concentration of strong base or acid has been obtained with good accuracy (calculated slope of Grant's plot: −100 ± 0.02, −r = 0.9999). Values of [H2CO3] obtained from pH-values measured in connection with sampling, correspond, in most cases, to supersaturation which for samples with about the same pH seems to increase with alkalinity and also possibly with the concentration of fulvic acid. However, the method of calculation applied may not give quite reliable results for [H2CO3] in originally very acid samples.
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References
Brosset, C.: 1979, Water Air Soil Pollut. 11, 57.
Brosset, C. and Ferm, M.: 1978, Atmos. Environ. 12, 909.
Lee, Y.-H.: 1980, Water Air Soil Pollut., submitted.
Lee, Y.-H. and Brosset, C.: 1978, Water Air Soil Pollut. 10, 457.
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Brosset, C. A method for evaluating the acid-base balance in natural waters. Water Air Soil Pollut 14, 251–265 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00291840
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00291840