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The adsorption of dissolved organic carbon onto glass fiber filters and its effect on the measurement of particulate organic carbon: A laboratory and modeling exercise
Author(s) -
Novak Michael G.,
Cetinić Ivona,
Chaves Joaquín E.,
Mannino Antonio
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography: methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.898
H-Index - 72
ISSN - 1541-5856
DOI - 10.1002/lom3.10248
Subject(s) - particulates , dissolved organic carbon , adsorption , organic matter , saturation (graph theory) , carbon fibers , total organic carbon , chemistry , environmental chemistry , particulate organic carbon , filter (signal processing) , environmental science , nutrient , materials science , phytoplankton , organic chemistry , mathematics , combinatorics , composite number , computer science , composite material , computer vision
Particulate organic carbon (POC) represents a small portion of total carbon in the ocean. However, it plays a large role in the turnover of organic matter through the biological pump and other processes. Early on since the development of the POC measurement technique in the 1960s, it was known that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) adsorbs and is retained both on and in the filter. That retained DOC is measured as if it was part of the particulate fraction, an artifact that can cause significant overestimates of POC concentration. We set out to address the long‐standing question of whether the magnitude of the DOC adsorption is affected by the quantity and quality of the dissolved organic matter in the sample. However, our results precluded an unequivocal answer to that question; nevertheless, the experimental data generated did allow us to develop and test predictive models that relate the mass of carbon adsorbed to the volume of sample filtered. The results indicate that the uptake of DOC can be predicted using an exponential model and that a saturation point is approached when approximately a half‐liter of water is filtered. This model can be a valuable tool for correcting existing POC data sets that did not account for DOC adsorption. Nonetheless, this approach should not be regarded as a substitute for collecting in situ filter blanks in parallel with POC samples to properly correct for this artifact.