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Alkalinity, pH, and salinity measurements were made during the summer of 1972, in the lagoon of Fanning Atoll, Line Islands. These measurements were used to estimate water residence time and the rate of various CO₂ flux processes, particularly calcification.

Residence time of water in the lagoon is about 1 month, and the calcification rate is about 1,000 g CaCO₃ m^-2yr^-1. This rate is less than a third of what might have been anticipated on the basis of coral standing crop there. The lagoon water is supersaturated with respect to CaCO₃, but is significantly less so than is the adjacent open-ocean water. Possibly the metabolic process of calcification is limited by this lowered saturation state.

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