Articles | Volume 18, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1619-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1619-2021
Technical note
 | 
09 Mar 2021
Technical note |  | 09 Mar 2021

Technical note: CO2 is not like CH4 – limits of and corrections to the headspace method to analyse pCO2 in fresh water

Matthias Koschorreck, Yves T. Prairie, Jihyeon Kim, and Rafael Marcé

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Cited articles

Aberg, J. and Wallin, M. B.: Evaluating a fast headspace method for measuring DIC and subsequent calculation of PCO2 in freshwater systems, Inland Waters, 4, 157–166, 2014. 
Abril, G., Bouillon, S., Darchambeau, F., Teodoru, C. R., Marwick, T. R., Tamooh, F., Ochieng Omengo, F., Geeraert, N., Deirmendjian, L., Polsenaere, P., and Borges, A. V.: Technical Note: Large overestimation of pCO2 calculated from pH and alkalinity in acidic, organic-rich freshwaters, Biogeosciences, 12, 67–78, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-67-2015, 2015. 
Cawley, K. M.: neonDissGas: Calculates Dissolved CO2, CH4, and N2O Concentrations in Surface Water, in: R-package, available at: https://github.com/NEONScience/NEON-dissolved-gas/tree/master/neonDissGas (last access: 3 March 2021), 2018. 
Cole, J. J. and Prairie, Y. T.: Dissolved CO2, in: Encyclopedia of Inland Waters, Elsevier, available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780123706263/encyclopedia-of-inland-waters#book-info (last access: 3 March 2021), 2009. 
Dickson, A. G. and Riley, J. P.: The estimation of acid dissociation constants in seawater media from potentionmetric titrations with strong base. I. The ionic product of water – Kw, Mar. Chem., 7, 89–99, https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4203(79)90001-X, 1979. 
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Short summary
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in water samples is often measured using a gas chromatograph. Depending on the chemical composition of the water, this method can produce wrong results. We quantified the possible error and how it depends on water composition and the analytical procedure. We propose a method to correct wrong results by additionally analysing alkalinity in the samples. We provide an easily usable computer code to perform the correction calculations.
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