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Alkalinity and pH in the southern Chesapeake Bay and the James River estuary 1
Author(s) -
Wong George T. F.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1979.24.5.0970
Subject(s) - alkalinity , estuary , salinity , chesapeake bay , bay , oceanography , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , carbonic acid , environmental chemistry , chemistry , geology , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry
The ranges of alkalinity and pH in the southern Chesapeake Bay and the James River estuary were 2.25 meq·liter −1 at 32‰ to <0.85 at salinities below 6‰ and 7.5– 8.3 during the sampling period. Alkalinity is linearly related to salinity in southern Chesapeake Bay. In the James River estuary, the relationship is more complicated as a result of the mixing of various sources of water or the removal of alkalinity. pH values increase with salinity. The variations in pH may be caused by the salinity‐dependence of the apparent dissociation constants of carbonic acid.