Use of the Term ‘Base Rich’ in Ecology

Abstract

DURING investigations on the autecology of some mire carices, it was necessary to prepare a range of culture solutions with widely varying calcium contents. The culture solution used was full-strength Long Ashton basic formula¹, minus the calcium nitrate, bulked with the required quantities of either calcium chloride or calcium nitrate. On measuring the pH of the resultant solutions (see Table 1) the fallaciousness of the term ‘base rich’, as applied to natural waters by ecologists, was made1 painfully obvious. We had indeed produced what ecologically would have been termed a base rich water with a remarkably low pH, a paradox, be it in ecological or chemical terminology.