Deriving ecological quality standards for lakes using hypolimnetic oxygen depletion

Brian Foley, Rippey Brian, Stephen Maberly, Ian D Jones

Research output: Contribution to conferencePoster

Abstract

The ecological quality of lakes and other surface water bodies in the European Union is determined by the quality of the structure and functioning of the aquatic ecosystem. The depletion rate of oxygen in the hypolimnion is an important process in thermally stratified lakes and the distribution of consumption between water and sediment an important structural characteristic. It is shown that the variation of volumetric oxygen consumption rate with trophic state can be used to select lake water total phosphorus and chlorophyll concentrations that correspond to changes in the functioning of the lake. Lake morphometry has little effect on this aspect of lake function and the relative amount of oxygen consumption in the water and sediment changes only a little with trophic state, most of the consumption being in the water. Suggestions for the reference condition, good and moderate ecological quality are made using the changes in this aspect of lake function and they are presented as lake water total phosphorus and chlorophyll concentration.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jan 2009
EventAmerican Society for Limnology and Oceanography - Nice, France
Duration: 01 Feb 200901 Feb 2009

Conference

ConferenceAmerican Society for Limnology and Oceanography
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityNice
Period01/02/200901/02/2009

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