The method involves using pH meters to determine the diurnal variation of pH in the water. A sample of water is bubbled with an inert gas (such as nitrogen) in order to raise the Ph level. The sample is then titrated with a solution of distilled water that has been saturated with carbon-dioxide (at standard atmospheric pressure). The titration allows a researcher to establish a relationship between pH and total dissolved carbon-dioxide.
Once this relationship is known, then the limnologist may measure changes in the pH of water samples, and translate that change in pH into a corresponding change in the concentration of carbon-dioxide.
A portion of this lab is based on a problem appearing in the Harvard Consortium Calculus book, Hughes-Hallet, et al, 1994, p. 174
Last modified: Fri Jan 5 09:51:10 1996