Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

CS28 Phytoplankton: Distributions in Space and Time

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 10:00:00 AM

Location: Dona Ana

Pauer, J, J, SoBran Inc., Large Lakes Research Station, 9311 Groh Rd., Grosse Ile, MI, USA, pauer.james@epa.gov

Richardson, W, L, MED, NHEERL, ORD. U.S. EPA, Large Lakes Research Station, Grosse Ile, MI, USA,

Taunt, K, W, PAI, Large Lakes Research Station, Grosse Ile, MI, USA,

Melendez, W, , OAO, Large Lakes Research Station, Grosse Ile, MI, USA,

MODELING PHYTOPLANKTON IN LAKE MICHIGAN USING A HIGH RESOLUTION CARBON-BASED FRAMEWORK

The Lake Michigan Mass Balance project was initiated by the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office to determine strategies for managing toxic chemicals in the lake basin. The hydrophobicity of most of these chemicals necessitates a fundamental understanding of autochthonous production to adequately describe fate and transport of contaminants. A eutrophication model is in development to describe phytoplankton dynamics in the lake using a high spatial resolution framework (~ 40,000 cells). This provides the capacity to predict phytoplankton concentration gradients between the near shore and off shore and at specific locations in the lake such as river confluences. The development of the framework, including the formulation of kinetics equations, will be mentioned here briefly. We will elaborate on the tedious task of estimating the many model coefficients, accomplished by transforming project and historical field and lab data. We have recently entered the calibration phase, and our model results appear to compare well with the field data. We will present calibration results and discuss strategies for completing the project and challenges ahead.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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