Intercomparison 9711. pH, conductivity, alkalinity, nitrate + nitrite, chloride, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, total aluminium, reactive and non-labile aluminium, dissolved organic carbon, and chemical oxygen demand

摘要

The work described in this report was a part of an international cooperative programme for assessment and monitoring of acidification of rivers and lakes. Two sample sets were prepared for intercomparison, one for determination of the major ions, the other for determination of aluminium fractions and unspecified organic matter. The samples were sent to 50 laboratories and 47 laboratories from 22 countries submitted results. Good agreement was found for chloride, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, sodium and the unspecific organic compounds, dissolved organic carbon and chemical oxygen demand, more than 80% being evaluated as acceptable for these analytic variables. The results for nitrate + nitrite and aluminium species did not agree well, probably because different methods were used to determine the aluminium species. On the whole, 78% of the results were within the general target accuracy of plus or minus 20%. Laboratories with results outside this accuracy should improve their methods if they want to analyse low-concentration samples. To improve the compatibility of the analytical results for aluminium fractions, it seems necessary to normalize the analytical methods and determination techniques used for these determinations. A total error of plus minus 0.2 pH units seems to be a reasonable assessment of the accuracy for pH measurements when weakly acid or neutral water samples not in CO(sub 2) equilibrium are analyzed. 7 refs., 1 fig., 34 tabs.