A carbonate chemistry profile at the 1969 Geosecs Intercalibration Station in the eastern Pacific Ocean

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To compare and evaluate measurements made by the various laboratories participating in the Geochemical Ocean Section Study (Geosecs), four carbonate chemistry parameters, pH, pCO2, alkalinity, and total dissolved CO2, as well as temperature and salinity were measured for samples collected at the Geosecs intercalibration station, 28°20′±07′N and 121°41′±02′W. The methods for measurement include the glass-calomel electrode pair for pH, the pH and the potentiometric acid titration methods for alkalinity, gas chromatographic, infrared and potentiometric acid titration method for total CO2, and the gas equilibrator-infrared method for pCO2. The alkalinity values measured by the pH method agree with the values measured by the potentiometric acid titration method within 1%, and the total CO2 values measured by the chromatographic method agree with the values measured by the potentiometric acid titration method within 2%. The observed 3 to 5% difference between the total CO2 values measured by the chromatographic and infrared methods is attributed to the biological alteration of the unpoisoned samples used for the infrared methods. When two of the four measured carbonate parameters were used to calculate the remaining two parameters, the calculated values are found to differ systematically from the measured values for those two parameters. Such a discrepancy can be eliminated if a 30% error in the second apparent dissociation constant for carbonic acid (K2′) is assumed.