Lake Classification and Cultural Eutrophication

1) How are lakes classified in regards to trophic status?

2) What is cultural eutrophication?

3) What are the success stories and continuing problems of cultural eutrophication?

We have already talked about oligotrophic clear orthograde vs. vs. vs. eutrophic green clinograde

Originally, lakes were classified as either oligotrophic or eutrophic, unless they were dystrophicbrown colored water due to dissolved humic substances (tannins)

Now classify lakes and their productivity based on TP during spring circulation

Ultraoligotrophic Oligotrophic Mesotrophic Eutrophic Hypereutrophic

<5 ug/l 5-10 ug/l 10-30 ug/l 30-100 ug/l > 100 ug/l
http://resac.gis.umn.edu/lakeweb/wquality.htm

Originally thought that lakes were all created oligotrophic, but became eutrophic over time

Less productive

More productive

Thought there was a natural ontongeny to lakes

This progress through trophic states may be true for some lakes, but some lakes were born productive. Productivity strongly related to basin morphometry. August Thienemann (1882-1960) compared the ratio of the volume of the epilimnion to the volume of the hypolimnion epi/hypo < 1 epi/hypo >1

oligotrophic

eutrophic

But, humans alter lake productivity By the late 1800s, and early part of the 1900s, it became clear that some lakes were becoming eutrophic much faster than was predicted

Lakes that had historically been clear were getting dense blooms of blue-green algae and fish were dying

Cultural Eutrophication increases in phytoplankton due to human-induced increases in nutrient (P) input

This was happing to several large lakes

Lake Zurich, Switzerland
europeforvisitors.com

Lake Constance, Germany

Lake Erie

Why was this happening???

Dilution was thought to be the best solution for wastes

Chicago originally pumped its raw sewage into Lake Michigan

Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal reversed the flow of the Chicago River

Why was this happening???

Most lakes are P limited, add more P, increase algal growth Both human waste and early synthetic detergents (prevalent after WWII) were high in phosphorous

But in the 1960s, the limiting nutrient for algal growth was still a subject of debate

In 1960s and 1970s, huge debates over what limited algal growthsome said P, others N, others C (CO2)

This argument was far from being just academic, lots of money involved (taxpayers, municipalities, industry)

Detergent industry argued that there was no evidence that excess P was harmful to lakes

Why

phosphates in detergent? softens the water aids in cleaning keeps dirt particles in suspension

Developing alternatives was expensive for the detergent industry Took until 1994 to be eliminated from most major laundry detergents (but still common in detergents for automatic dishwashers)

D. Schindler 1974

ELA Lake 226

The Lake Washington StoryAn Urban Lake

Edmondson 1991 The Uses of Ecology: Lake Washington and Beyond

Primary sewage treatment -- removes solid material by filtering and settling.

Does not remove dissolved material (nutrients)

Secondary sewage treatment-- removes the dissolved organic material. Bacteria and other microorganisms consume the dissolved organic material Does not remove the dissolved inorganic nutrients

Tertiary sewage treatment--The final, most costly (and often not completed) stage in sewage treatment

Removes phosphates and nitrates from the water

Lake Washington began as an oligotrophic lake 1851 The settlement that would become Seattle was founded 1883 The Seattle Sewerage agency constructed a series of pipes to pump raw sewage out into the lake (outfalls) (this was a problem because most people still got their drinking water from the lake) 1922 30 outfalls took sewage into Lake Washington

1936 A partial diversion system was completed to take the raw sewage into Puget Sound (From 19561966, 70 million gallons per day of raw sewage was pumped into Puget Sound). This diversion was just for the outfalls that were closest to Puget Sound. Which, at that time, was most of the people, but as Seattle expanded, so did the sewage problem 1941 Secondary Sewage Treatment plants installed

1955 George C. Anderson, a recent PhD graduate from the University of Washington goes sailing.

Brings back a beer bottle full of algae to Tommy Edmondson

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/ oscillatoria2.jpg

Algae is Oscillatoria rubescens, a blue-green that had been forming dense blooms in Lake Zurich.

Edmondson recognized the problem and argued for diversion

Changes cost money: 1. To industry, which is passes along to the consumer 2. To the taxpayer

Public action can make a difference

1958 Public vote for total diversion of sewage from Lake Washington

1968 Total Diversion

1976 Record transparenciesHuge increases in Daphnia populations

Why did Daphnia increase?

Oscillatoria interferes with Daphnia feeding, so fewer Daphnia during peak eutrophication
Prior to eutrophication, Daphnia had traditionally suffered heavy predation pressure by Neomysis,
www.delta.dfg.ca.gov/ baydelta/neompic.gif

Where did all the Neomysis go?

Where did all the Neomysis go?

Neomysis are a preferred prey for juvenile longfin

smelt

dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/ lakes/fishmort.jpg

Reasons for smelt increase are not obvious, but may be linked to improvements in breeding habitat in the Cedar River

Lake Washington recovered as a result of both bottom-up control (reduced nutrients) and top down control (reduced predation on the grazers)

But, not all lakes recover this quickly, often due to internal loading or lack of success with top-down control

Good Professor Edmondson (to the tune of Good King Wenceslaus)

Good Professor Edmondson looked outside one nooning, Looked out on Lake Washington, noticed it was blooming. All the other scientists asked what was polluting. Some said it was CO2; he said it was soo-oo-age. The lake had turned a muddy brown from Oscillatoria, Reminded of Lake Zurich, then, he was in euphoria. All of the Seattleites looked on with aversion. They believed their lake was dead, he called for diver-er-sion. Voters took a public stand to make their lake look pretty. Their task began in 63; it ended with Lake City. They harkened to his learned words, pollution dropped to zero. Good Professor Edmondson had become a he-ee-ro. By J.T. Lehman

Cultural eutrophication is still a problem

Mandatory sewage treatment and diversion (mostly) solved the problem of point-source pollution Now cultural eutrophication is often caused by non-

point source pollution

Use of fertilizer, changes in land use and climate change interact to create new problems

Lake Tahoe

Hatch et al. 2001

Human impact began to increase after the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley

Since 1968, transparency (Secchi depth) has declined by about 30 cm/year

Streams are brining an increasing amount of PP into the lake after snowmelt

http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/nam/NAM02-01.gif

http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd1960/lake-tahoe-19.4.jpg

Concepts to know

Is there a natural ontongeny to lakes? What happened in Lake Washington? Lake Erie and Lake Washington are two examples of lakes that were saved. Will all lakes respond to diversion? Why or why not? Do we still need to worry about cultural eutrophication?

Practice question
It is well established that many lakes in industrialized regions have experienced cultural eutrophication, primarily as the result of sewage pollution. Lake Washington, USA, serves as a dramatic example of how diversion of that sewage (and subsequent reduction in phosphorus pollution) can restore lake clarity. In other lakes, however, reversal of the effect of phosphorus pollution has been slow to appear, primarily due to internal loading. Please explain the process of internal loading, including a consideration of what types of lakes are most likely to be influenced by internal loading, and why it can slow down lake recovery from sewage pollution.