Technical note: Interpreting pH changes

Fassbender, Andrea J.; Orr, James C.; Dickson, Andrew G.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1407-2021

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1407-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1407-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

Technical note

|

24 Feb 2021

Technical note |

| 24 Feb 2021

Technical note: Interpreting pH changes

Andrea J. Fassbender, James C. Orr, and Andrew G. Dickson

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Final revised paper (published on 24 Feb 2021)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 12 Oct 2020)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

SC1: 'Will be an excellent contribution to the field but the scope is too narrow', Stephen Gonski, 17 Oct 2020
- AC1: 'Reply to Stephen Gonski', Andrea Fassbender, 15 Dec 2020
RC1: 'Review of Fassbender et al: "Technical note: interpreting pH changes"', Anonymous Referee #1, 02 Nov 2020
- AC2: 'Reply to Referee #1', Andrea Fassbender, 15 Dec 2020
RC2: '?', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Nov 2020
- AC3: 'Reply to Referee #2', Andrea Fassbender, 15 Dec 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (02 Jan 2021) by Peter Landschützer

AR by Andrea Fassbender on behalf of the Authors (05 Jan 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (14 Jan 2021) by Peter Landschützer

AR by Andrea Fassbender on behalf of the Authors (15 Jan 2021)

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Short summary

A decline in upper-ocean pH with time is typically ascribed to ocean acidification. A more quantitative interpretation is often confused by failing to recognize the implications of pH being a logarithmic transform of hydrogen ion concentration rather than an absolute measure. This can lead to an unwitting misinterpretation of pH data. We provide three real-world examples illustrating this and recommend the reporting of both hydrogen ion concentration and pH in studies of ocean chemical change.