Dynamics of Interal Phosporus Cycling in a Highly Eutrophic, Shallow, Fresh Water Lake in Utah Lake State Park, Utah, USA

• Main Author: Smithson, Sheena Marie
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2020
• Subjects: eutrophication; internal phosphorus cycle; aerobic; anaerobic; soluble reactive phosphorus; bicarbonate buffer system; Physical Sciences and Mathematics
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/9217; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10226&context=etd

Eutrophication is an increasing global concern as human effluent saturates lakes with an over abundance of nutrients. Phosphorus, generally being the limiting nutrient, is often the most impactful, allowing cyanobacteria populations to grow out of control leading to harmful blooms that can produce cyanotoxins, anoxic lake conditions, and mass fish kills. Utah Lake, a shallow highly eutrophic fresh water lake located in central Utah Valley, has experienced these harmful algal blooms for the last several years. The internal phosphorus cycle is a significant driver in Utah Lake's eutrophication, as the sediments act as both a sink and a source for phosphorus. Most of the phosphorus originates from external sources, gets captured by the sediment, and then through several physiochemical and biological process, gets released back into the surface water as a self sustaining eutrophication system. To determine the effects of the different physiochemical processes that drive the internal phosphorus system, we incubated 72 total sediment cores taken from two locations, chosen to best represent the lake's chemical and spatial variability, under aerobic, anaerobic, pH=9.5 and pH=7 conditions with various P concentrations (ambient, 0.5X, 2X, 4X) taking water samples at 0, 12, 24, and 72 hours. Dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), and other major ions were measured for each sample. The highest P sediment release occurred under aerobic conditions, while the highest P sediment uptake occurred under anaerobic conditions. While pH did appear to have a mild effect on P flux, our study showed the lake has a remarkably stable bicarbonate buffer system making it unlikely that pH would contribute significantly under natural settings. Under all conditions the 2X and 4X cores experienced the highest P uptake, but final elevated P concentrations were still higher than initial ambient concentrations, indicating a probable delayed recovery time after external reductions occur.