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Abstract
Inorganic carbon (IC) in soil is important when considering carbon (C) fluxes and processes in the environment that involve C. Here data are presented for measurement of IC in soils using the pressure-calcimeter method of Sherrod et al. (2002) with modifications to decrease analysis time while preserving method accuracy. Inorganic C measured using a syringe to inject acid vs. the vial delivery method of the original method were not significantly different at the 95 percent confidence level when using 100-ml bottles for the analysis (R2 = 0.9946). When using 20-ml bottles, bias was introduced in the measurement when using a syringe for acid delivery, likely due to small losses of pressure from the bottle during acid delivery. There was no significant difference at the 95 percent confidence level in IC measured on unsieved finely ground and coarsely ground soil. When quantifying IC in soils using the modified pressure calcimeter method with a 100-ml bottle, a syringe can be used to inject acid into the capped bottle rather than dropping a vial into the bottle and then capping it. This modification results in a modest reduction in cost and significant reduction in time required for analysis and cleanup.