Nutrient Cycling Dynamics

This page contains charts illustrating the seasonal dynamics of the lake's nutrient cycling. These dynamics were the focus of a previous study (Walker and Kann, 2020), which compared the seasonal relationships between inflow and outflow phosphorus loads. The results of that study showed that summer outflow TP concentrations were related to inflow TP loads from the previous winter suggesting that phosphorus is rapidly cycled through the lake sediments. This page presents some of the key figures from that study using the current mass balance datasets.

These charts are based on a "Phosphorus Water Year" (PWY) which is defined as the 12-month period from May 1 to April 30.

Monthly Mean Charts

Parameter:

Scatterplots

The following scatterplots illustrate the seasonal relationships between winter inflow TP loads, winter net retention, summer net release, and summer outflow loads and concentrations. Together, these relationships show that higher winter inflow loads ultimately drive higher summer outflow loads and concentrations, which suggests that phosphorus is rapidly cycled through the lake sediments.

↑ winter net inflow load ⇒ ↑ winter net retention

↑ winter net retention ⇒ ↑ summer net release

↑ summer net release ⇒ ↑ summer outflow load

↑ summer outflow load ⇒ ↑ summer outflow concentration