Land Use Changes Do Not Rapidly Change the Trophic State of a Deep Lake. Amvrakia Lake, Greece

Αnna-Αkrivi Thomatou, Marianna Triantafyllidou, Ekaterini Chalkia, George Kehayias, Ioannis Konstantinou, Ierotheos Zacharias

Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Ioannina, Agrinio, Greece.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2013.45051                

Abstract

The study of physicochemical and biological parameters can assess the trend of a lake’s trophic state. A trophic state index (TSI) was used to assess eutrophication of LakeAmvrakia. Total phosphorus and chlorophyll concentrations that recorded were generally at the same level with those recorded in previous years, a fact which indicates that lake’s trophic state did not change. But in the past ten years, agricultural uses have been modified by almost 25% of the catchment area, because of the major reduction of tobacco cultivation. One year of monthly monitoring, in nine sampling stations can report this result. Even if the catchment is small and the agricultural areas are the 47% of the basin, the water quality of the lake did not change. The trophic state is stable probably because the lake is deep monomictic, and seasonally anoxic. For this reason internal phosphorus contribution is very important in the deep hypolimnion.

Keywords

Trophic State; TSI; Dissolved Oxygen; Anoxia; Lake Amvrakia; Greece

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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