3i8 



PAPERS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 



It is difficult to see much, if any, regularity, with regard to tempera- 

 ture, in Dittmar's results. There is a slight indication that the "alka- 

 linity" decreases with rising temperature, but the results are too few to 

 show the relation with certainty. Nearly all the values appear to be high. 

 The samples had stood in glass, with occasional exposure to laboratory air, 

 for long intervals, so that one can not help feeling that it would have been 

 better if the titrations had been made on shipboard. 



Further determinations were made in the North Sea by E. Ruppin on 

 the Poseidon} Some of his results are shown in table 4. 



Table 4. — Ruppin' s results for water of the North Sea, depth 5 meters. 



In Ruppin's results, also, no relation between the carbonate content 

 and the temperature can be discovered. Nor do any other data on the 

 open ocean known to me bring out the relationship. The inevitable con- 

 clusion from the evidence is that the ocean does not come into equilibrium 

 with the atmosphere fast enough to attain the expected adjustment. But 

 further determinations in the colder parts of the ocean are needed, especially 

 in waters that have remained cold and been exposed to the atmosphere for 

 a long time. 



Analyses of some of the warmer and nearly inclosed seas, on the other 

 hand, do show a decrease in the carbonate content. In the Red Sea, for 

 instance, Natterer 2 found low values for the carbonates and the deposition 

 of solid carbonates takes place there. It is evident that it is to such por- 

 tions of the ocean that one must look for variations of the kind discussed 

 in this paper. Moreover, in future examinations of ocean water, as much 

 attention as possible should be paid to currents in the water and to the 

 "previous history" of the water, for it is evident that such factors may 

 mean as much, or more, than its location or temperature at the moment 

 of collection. 



■Z. anorg. Chem. 66, 122 (1910). 



2 Monatsh. Chem., 20, I (1899). 



