Water quality trends in Hamilton Harbour: Two decades of change in nutrients and chlorophyll a

Autor: Véronique P. Hiriart-Baer, Jacqui E. Milne, Murray N. Charlton
Rok vydání: 2009
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Great Lakes Research. 35:293-301
ISSN: 0380-1330
DOI: 10.1016/j.jglr.2008.12.007
Popis: Systematic water quality research and monitoring has been on-going in Hamilton Harbour since 1987 in response to the Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for this Area of Concern (AOC). Here we present a spatiotemporal analysis of water quality in the harbour and its biological response from 1987 to 2007. Overall nutrient concentrations have decreased by 16 (SRP), 26 (NH3-Tot) and 36% (TP) in the harbour, chl a concentrations have decreased by 16% and NO3/2 concentrations have increased by 27%. Hypoxia in the hypolimnion of Hamilton Harbour remains a common occurrence despite improvements in surface water quality conditions. Seasonal patterns in water quality in Hamilton Harbour are mainly driven by biological activity and show typical patterns observed in dimictic nutrient rich lakes. There is systematic spatial variability in water quality in the harbour which is related to the proximity of point and non-point sources; however, there is coherence among all stations sampled and similar temporal trends wer...
Databáze: OpenAIRE