CONTINUOUS MEASUREMENT OF STREAM PH - EVALUATION OF PROCEDURES AND COMPARISON OF RESULTING HYDROGEN-ION BUDGETS WITH THOSE FROM FLOW-WEIGHTED INTEGRATING SAMPLERS

The pH of Tam Head Beck, an acidic upland stream in the English Lake D istrict, was continuously recorded for a period of 6 months. Prelimina ry measurements showed that electrodes should be completely immersed t o avoid problems associated with the difference in temperature between water and air. For a site without mains power good results were obtai ned by deploying electrodes within the stream in purpose-built units. There was good agreement between these directly deployed electrodes an d electrodes immersed in an auxiliary flow in an instrument box on the bank of the stream. Spot measurements taken from the continuous recor d also compared well with dip samples collected into bottles and subse quently measured in the laboratory. There were no problems associated with long-term drift under field conditions, even though preliminary l aboratory experiments had indicated that the stability of the electrod es would be inadequate. Electrodes appear to perform more reproducibly after long-term immersion in a relatively constant medium. Measuremen ts of hydrogen ion fluxes over 14 day periods obtained using an automa tic integrating sampler and the total flow were compared with measurem ents calculated from continuously recorded pH and flow. Although agree ment was good at low and medium flow, the integrating sampler results appeared to underestimate results at high flow. For annual budget stud ies, the use of event triggered samplers is recommended.