Sedimentation Rates and a Revised Sediment Budget for Lake Erie

The diversity and distribution of toxigenic Microcystis spp. in present day and archived pelagic and sediment samples from Lake Erie

“…Moreover, the dormant, overwintering colonies on the sediment surface may be transported throughout the sediments due to sediment resuspension and bioturbation, further complicating the dating of these samples. Given these caveats, existing estimates of sedimentation rates for the western basin of Lake Erie of Kemp et al (1977) (ranging from 0.5-7.4 mm per year, mean = 3.86 mm per year) suggest that our surface (0-2 cm) samples represented material deposited in the last $10 years (with a range of 2.7-40 years using the extreme rates) while samples in the 8-10 cm depth sediment fraction were deposited $35 years (with a range extremes of 10.8-200 years) earlier.…”

Assessing the application of SeaWiFS ocean color algorithms to Lake Erie

“…Toxic algal blooms, which contribute to variations in CPAs, have been documented most commonly in the western basin of the lake (Budd et al, 2001;Vincent et al, 2004), and are expected to become more wide-spread in the future (Conroy et al, 2007). In addition to these variations in biological properties, most of the major rivers draining into Lake Erie empty into the western basin, where they deposit much of their accumulated sediment load (Kemp et al, 1977). This flux, and the resuspension of bottom sediments (Dusini et al, 2009;Marvin et al, 2007), contribute to the higher levels of turbidity observed in the shallow western basin as compared with other basins of the lake (Markarewiczl et al, 1999).…”

“…Case 2 waters represent more complex optical settings, which may include phytoplankton, suspended sediments and other water-borne materials (see Mobley et al (2004) and Morel and Prieur (1977)). Within the relatively confined setting of Lake Erie, biological and sedimentological conditions can vary significantly (Kemp et al, 1977;Makarewicz, 1993;Marvin et al, 2007), resulting in potentially diverse optical conditions. While some regions of the lake may satisfy conditions for Case 1 waters, other regions may represent an extreme end member of Case 2 waters.…”

Nitrogen compounds and phosphate of the Driss I reservoir (Morocco): input, output and sedimentation

“…We have recently assessed the release of phosphate at the water-sediment interface in the Driss I reservoir by means of benthic chamber experiments and demonstrated that Ca was responsible for the binding of a large fraction of phosphate as apatite, preventing phosphate release into the overlying water . Furthermore, several studies performed in temperate regions pointed out close relationships between the sediment load delivered to a lake by its watershed on the one hand, and sedimentation flux and sediment mass balance estimates, on the other hand (Kemp et al ., 1977, Vernet et al ., 1984Thomas, 1988, Golterman & De Oude, 1991Thornton et al ., 1991 ;Aleya et al ., 1994a, b). However, in arid to semi-arid zones, like the Driss I reservoir area, such information remains scarce .…”