Variability of dissolved CO₂ in the Pang and Lambourn Chalk rivers

Abstract. This paper presents the results of a two-year field campaign to determine the spatial and temporal variability of groundwater interaction with surface waters in two Cretaceous Chalk catchments (the Pang and Lambourn) in the Upper Thames in Berkshire, UK, based on measurement of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO₂). Average stream water concentrations of dissolved CO₂ were up to 35 times the concentration at atmospheric equilibrium. Mean groundwater concentrations of 85 and 70 times the atmospheric equilibrium were determined from borehole water sampled in the Pang and Lambourn respectively. Diurnal and seasonal variation of in-stream concentration of dissolved CO₂ is not significant enough to mask the signal from groundwater inputs.