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Abstract An overview of the methods used for the isolation and characterization of organic matter in natural waters is presented. Commonly used techniques for the concentration and isolation of organic matter from water, such as preparative chromatography, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, and the methods used to analyze the organic matter obtained by these methods are reviewed. the development of methods to obtain organic matter that is associated with fractions of the dissolved organic carbon other than humic substances, such as organic bases, hydrophilic organic acids and colloidal organic matter are discussed. Methods specifically used to study dissolved organic nitrogen and dissolved organic phosphorous are also discussed.
Aiken et al. (Wed,) studied this question.