This note is intended as an update on activities to improve the measurement of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in seawater. The exciting and controversial paper by Sugimura and Suzuki (1988) led to renewed interest in DOC in the ocean. It was followed by several early comments in this forum (Jackson, 1988; Williams and Druffek 1988) and considerable research activity culminating in the comment by Williams (1992) about the Seattle DOC workshop. A historical perspective on DOC measurement is presented here along with comments on publications since the Seattle workshop, highlights of two efforts launched to start the process of interlaboratory comparison for uniform DOC measurements, and an announcement for the next comparison activity. The results referenced here are the product of a cooperative effort by a number of analysts with valuable guidance from a steering committee (see Acknowledgements). The opinions and conclusions are mine.

Sharp, J.H. 1993. The dissolved organic carbon controversy: An update. Oceanography 6(2):45–50, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1993.13.

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