New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

Factors affecting water clarity in Lake Ellesmere, New Zealand

P. GERBEAUX*

J.C.WARD

Centre for Resource Management Lincoln University Canterbury, New Zealand
*Present address: Hydrology Centre, DSIR Marine and Freshwater, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, P. O. Box 22-037, Christchurch, New Zealand
Abstract Factors affecting the optical properties and water clarity of Lake Ellesmere were investigated over an 18-month period. The dominant cause of light attenuation was scattering. Clarity was found to be more dependent on very high levels of inorganic suspensoids than on phytoplankton biomass; however, high levels of chlorophyll a were also present. Fluctuations in inorganic suspensoid levels could be explained by different wind velocities before sampling. Wind velocity is thus one of several parameters that could be used to monitor the degree of light attenuation in this lake. The very compressed euphotic zone explained why macrophyte growth was restricted to shallow and/or sheltered embayments.

Keywords water clarity; chlorophyll a; inorganic suspensoids; aquatic macrophytes; wind; Lake Ellesmere; shallow lake

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1991, Vol. 25: 289-296 0028-8330/2503-0289 $2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1991
Received 15 May 1991: accepted 1 July 1991

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (680K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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