• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.610-617
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• 2013

Investigating the budgets of alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in lake water systems is significant for the examination of the behavior of a lake as a sink or a source with respect to the circulation of inorganic carbon chemistry. Budgets of total alkalinity ($Alk_T$) and DIC in Onondaga Lake, which was polluted by chronic calcium (Ca) loading in spite of the closure of soda ash ($Na_2CO_3$) facility, were determined by the analyses of inorganic carbon chemistry in tributary stream channels linked to the lake. AlkT and DIC fluxes of Onondaga Creek and Ninemile Creek occupied 65% and 54%, respectively, as larger tributary streams in comparison with other tributaries as well as different input sources. Budget calculations indicate that 18% of AlkT and 11% of DIC inputs to Onondaga Lake, respectively, remained immobilized in the Lake. This suggests that Ca chronically leached had been precipitated with inorganic carbon or remineralized by secondary mineral formation during the experimental period. In this study, the assumed mass balance calculation in Onondaga Lake with tributary streams resulted in exhibiting that the lake played a role of the sink for the inorganic carbon cycle.