LIMNOLOGICAL MODELLING: SIMULATION OF VERTICAL PROFILES OF TEMPERATURE, DISSOLVED OXYGEN AND NUTRIENTS. I. THEORY

Abstract

In a body of water, variations occur in all limnological parameters on many time and space scales. Modelling can either be specific - for a selected subset; or can attempt to simulate the gross characteristics of e.g. current, temperature, algal blooms over an annual cycle (or longer). Vertical profiles perhaps give the greatest information for assessment of water quality. For a lake in a given geographical location, the prevailing atmospheric climate (i.e. wind, rain, solar radiation) is reflected in the mean behaviour of the lake - the hydro climate. This hydroclimate is specified by a set of statistics: one for each limnological parameter; the simplest of these to model is temperature. The one-dimensional model used first to describe heat transfer is easily adapted to simulate distributions of dissolved oxygen (DO), Mn, P, N, etc. once their major sources and sinks have been identified and quantified.