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.