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- Title
INCREASING TRENDS IN DISSOLVED PHOSPHORUS LOADING TO LAKE ERIE FROM NORTHWESTERN OHIO WATERSHEDS: 1994-2007.
- Authors
Baker, David B.; Crumrine, John P.; Richards, R. Peter; Kramer, Jack W.
- Abstract
To support nutrient management programs in the Lake Erie Basin, the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg College has been monitoring the export of nutrients and suspended sediments from northern Ohio watersheds since 1975. Using automatic samplers located at U.S. Geological Survey stream gages, three or four samples per day have been collected on a year-round basis, with multiple samples per day analyzed during storm events and single samples per day during non-storm periods. Between 1976 and 1985, total phosphorus loads to Lake Erie averaged 13,299 metric tons, with nonpoint sources accounting for 72% of the total. These observations led to the initiation of various conservation tillage programs to reduce erosion and export of suspended sediments and particulate phosphorus. Between 1976 and 1995, these conservation programs resulted in reductions in suspended solids and total phosphorus loading from the Maumee and Sandusky watersheds by 22% and 44%, respectively. Dissolved reactive phosphorus had dropped by an even larger 86%. Although suspended sediment and particulate phosphorus loading has continued to decline since 1995, dissolved reactive phosphorus loading has increased dramatically, now reaching or exceeding the late 1970 values. Because 100% of dissolved reactive phosphorus is bioavailable to algae, these loading trends warrant examination as potential causes of recently observed increases in blue-green algal growth in western Lake Erie. The dissolved phosphorus loading from the Maumee and Sandusky watersheds is primarily associated with storm runoff events, which indicates that agricultural runoff is the major cause of the increased soluble phosphorus export.
- Subjects
LAKE Erie; MAUMEE (Ohio); SANDUSKY (Ohio); OHIO; COMPOSITION of water; PHOSPHORUS in water; TILLAGE; WATERSHEDS
- Publication
Ohio Journal of Science, 2008, Vol 108, Issue 1, pA-9
- ISSN
0030-0950
- Publication type
Article