Modification of Phosphorus Retention Models for Use with Lakes with Low Areal Water Loading

Abstract

Existing phosphorus retention models are shown to overestimate retention in lakes where the areal water load (q_s) is < 10 m/yr, thereby leading to low predictions of phosphorus concentration. This is caused, in part, by inconsistent assumptions in the overall modeling sequence. New empirical equations are presented that give better predictions of phosphorus for lakes with q_s < 10 m, and equally good predictions for lakes with q_s > 10 m. Key words: retention, phosphorus, empirical model, areal water load