Carbon Dioxide in Natural Waters

Abstract

This chapter presents some of the basic physical and chemical relationships that are relevant to an understanding of the behavior of CO₂ in the Earth’s surface environment. It would be an understatement to say that the literature on this subject is extensive—it is prodigious! In Chapter 2 we dealt with the Earth’s atmosphere in the past and present that is based mostly on the model of an ideal gas. However, CO₂ on the Earth’s surface interacts with other gases, it dissolves in water, and reacts with water, other dissolved species, and minerals. Many of the chemical reactions involving CO₂ are either directly or indirectly mediated by biological processes, as is briefly discussed in Chapter 1 and further addressed in Chapters 6 and 9.