Volume 39 Issue 8
Aug.  2020
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Chen Ling, Zhifei Liu, Jingwen Zhang, Yulong Zhao, Yanwei Zhang, Adrian R. Fernandez. Pitfalls of acid leaching method for determining organic and inorganic carbon contents in marine sediments[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(8): 96-102. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1631-z
Citation: Chen Ling, Zhifei Liu, Jingwen Zhang, Yulong Zhao, Yanwei Zhang, Adrian R. Fernandez. Pitfalls of acid leaching method for determining organic and inorganic carbon contents in marine sediments[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(8): 96-102. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1631-z

Pitfalls of acid leaching method for determining organic and inorganic carbon contents in marine sediments

doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1631-z
Funds:  The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41530964, 41776047, 41876048 and 91528304.
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  • Corresponding author: E-mail: lzhifei@tongji.edu.cn
  • Received Date: 2019-12-13
  • Accepted Date: 2020-03-02
  • Available Online: 2020-12-28
  • Publish Date: 2020-08-25
  • Organic and inorganic carbon contents of marine sediments are important to reconstruct marine productivity, global carbon cycle, and climate change. A proper method to separate and determine organic and inorganic carbons is thus of great necessity. Although the best method is still disputable, the acid leaching method is widely used in many laboratories because of its ease-of-use and high accuracy. The results of the elemental analysis of sediment trap samples reveal that organic and inorganic carbon contents cannot be obtained using the acid leaching method, causing an infinitely amplified error when the carbon content of the decarbonated sample is 12%±1% according to a mathematical derivation. Acid fumigation and gasometric methods are used for comparison, which indicates that other methods can avoid this problem in organic carbon analysis. For the first time, this study uncovers the pitfalls of the acid leaching method, which limits the implication in practical laboratory measurement, and recommends alternative solutions of organic/inorganic carbon determination in marine sediments.
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