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Laboratory Overview

By St. Petersburg Carbon Analytical Laboratory

The USGS-St. Petersburg Carbon Analytical Laboratory utilizes state of the art methods and instrumentation for quantifying carbon system parameters in aqueous samples. 

inside the Carbon Analytical lab
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Carbon Analytical Laboratory at USGS, St. Petersburg, Florida. (Public domain.)

The laboratory operates Ocean Optics USB 2000 spectrometers to determine spectrophotometric total alkalinity and UIC Model CM5014 CO2 Coulometers with Model CM5130 Acidification Modules, to measure total carbon in aquatic ecosystems ranging from estuaries to open marine systems and from the equator to poles. Analytical methods are derived from Yao and Byrne (1998), DOE (1994), and Dickson et al. (2007). Certified reference materials for instrument calibration and quality assessment are from A. Dickson (Scripps Institution of Oceanography).

 

References:

Dickson, A.G., Sabine, C.L., and Christian, J.R. (eds). 2007. Guide to best practices for ocean CO2 measurements. PICES special publication 3, 191 pp.
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/oceans/Handbook_2007.html

DOE. 1994. Handbook of methods for the analysis of the various parameters of the carbon dioxide system in sea water, version 2, A. G. Dickson & C. Goyet, eds., ORNL/CDIAC-74.
http://andrew.ucsd.edu/co2qc/handbook.html

Yao, W. and Byrne, R.H. 1998. Simplified seawater alkalinity analysis: use of linear array spectrometers. Deep-Sea Research I, 45:1383-1392.  
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063798000181