Changes of water quality and sediment phosphorus of a small productive lake following decreased phosphorus loading

Esthwaite Water is the most productive or eutrophic lake in the English Lake District. Since 1945 its water quality has been determined from weekly or biweekly measurements of temperature, oxygen, plant nutrients and phytoplankton abundance. The lake receives phosphorus from its largely lowland-pasture catchment, sewage effluent from the villages of Hawkshead and Near Sawrey, and from a cage-culture fish farm. From 1986 phosphorus has been removed from the sewage effluent of Hawkshead which was considered to contribute between 47% and 67% of the total phosphorus loading to the lake. At the commencement of phosphorus removal regular measurements of phosphorus in the superficial 0-4 cm layer of lake sediment were made from cores collected at random sites. Since 1986 the mean annual concentration of alkali-extractable sediment phosphorus has decreased by 23%. This change is not significant at the 5% level but nearly so. There has been no marked change in water quality over this period. Summer dominance of blue-green algae which arose in the early 1980s after decline of the previous summer forms, Ceratium spp., has been maintained. Improvement in water quality is unlikely to be achieved at the present phosphorus loading

Ceratium hirundinella - ecology of a complex, mobile, and successful plant

Recent work carried out in the English Lake District (Esthwaite Water and Blelham Tarn) is reported. The seasonal growth cycle, diel growth cycle, photosynthesis, vertical distribution and migrations, horizontal distribution, and the interaction of environmental factors, were investigated

Bassenthwaite Lake: a general assessment of environmental and biological features and their susceptibility to change

Bassenthwaite (Lake) is one of the larger Cumbrian lakes, certainly one of the most distinctive, and of considerable conservation and amenity value. Although its shores lack sizeable settlements, its main inflow receives sewage effluent from a major tourist centre (Keswick) and is subject to episodic floods. These influences, the growing development of leisure activities at the lake (e.g. sailing, time-share units), and recent road-construction, have led to past appraisals of ecological impacts and lake management. The lake has not been the subject of intense and long-term ecological study, but much scattered information exists that is relevant to future management decisions. In the present Report, commissioned by North West Water, such information - published and unpublished - is surveyed. Especial attention is given to evidence bearing on susceptibility to change, affecting the lake environment and its biota or species of conservation interest. Extensive use has been made of the results of a recent (1986-7) seasonal survey by the FBA

A general assessment of environmental and biological features of Windermere and their susceptibility to change

Bassenthwaite (Lake) is one of the larger Cumbrian lakes, certainly one of the most distinctive, and of considerable conservation and amenity value. Although its shores lack sizeable settlements, its main inflow receives sewage effluent from a major tourist centre (Keswick) and is subject to episodic floods. These influences, the growing development of leisure activities at the lake (e.g. sailing, time-share units), and recent road-construction, have led to past appraisals of ecological impacts and lake management. The lake has not been the subject of intense and long-term ecological study, but much scattered information exists that is relevant to future management decisions. In the present Report, commissioned by North West Water, such information - published and unpublished - is surveyed. Especial attention is given to evidence bearing on susceptibility to change, affecting the lake environment and its biota or species of conservation interest. Extensive use has been made of the results of a recent (1986-7) seasonal survey by the FBA

John Francis Talling. 23 March 1929 — 20 June 2017

John (Jack) Francis Talling was a master limnologist who pioneered much of our understanding of the River Nile, the great lakes of the African Rift Valley and those of the English Lake District. He was one of the world's leading authorities on the ecophysiology of freshwater phytoplankton and specialized in the control of their productivity by light and carbon dioxide. His perspectives were formed by interaction with leading scientists of the day, mainly at the Freshwater Biological Association, Cumbria, but also at laboratories in Africa and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California. Jack's work on the effects of light on phytoplankton productivity was based on detailed measurements of the underwater light climate in lakes and oceans as well as laboratory and field measurements of the response of phytoplankton photosynthesis to light, involving the development of new or improved measurement methods. Calculation procedures were developed to estimate how light controls primary productivity. He devised the widely used characteristic ‘Ik’ to quantify the onset of light saturation in the curve that defines the response of photosynthesis to light quantity. Experiences in extremely productive African soda lakes stimulated an interest in the possibility of CO2 being a limiting factor controlling phytoplankton productivity and, more generally, Jack had the ecological insight to recognize that ecological dynamics resulted from interactions among factors rather than a response to a single variable

The rise and fall of Asterionella formosa in the South Basin of Windermere: analysis of a 45-year series of data

1 The changes in abundance of Asterionella formosa in the South Basin of Windermere between 1946 and 1990 are described and analysed. The average seasonal cycle for the 45-year period shows an overwintering population of about 10 cell ml−1 which increases with an exponential rate of 0.09 loge day−1 to an annual maximum of 4000 cell ml−1 by about Day 124. There is then a rapid decline at an exponential rate of loss of 0.29 loge day−1 to values which typically are less than 0.01 cell ml−1 in mid-summer. By about Day 240 a second period of rapid increase occurs with an exponential rate of increase of 0.18 loge. day−1 to a plateau of about 7 cell ml−1 in late autumn and early winter. 2 This average pattern is subject to considerable year-to-year variation. The timing and extent of the increase in the autumn was particularly variable. The rate of increase in the spring was strongly positively correlated, and that in the autumn strongly negatively correlated, with the day at which the exponential phase started. Rates for these two phases of increase were not statistically different when expressed in terms of time from mid-summer, which reinforces earlier conclusions that light availability is the main factor governing the rate of spring increase and suggests that this is also the case for the autumn increase. 3 Eight descriptors of seasonal development showed statistically significant changes over the 45 years. Early winter populations declined from 27 to 4 cell ml−1, and linked to this the day at which cell concentrations exceeded 50 cell ml−1 occurred later by 24 days from Day 54 in 1946 to 78 in 1990. The lower early winter population appears to be linked to a lower end of year population as this decreased between 1946 and 1968 from 46 to 2 cell ml−1, and then increased slightly to 7 cell ml−1 in 1990. The start of the spring exponential increase occurred on Day 57 in 1946 and started earlier by 19 days in 1968 but then occurred later, at Day 76, in 1990. The duration of the spring increase got shorter by 23 days, from 67 days in 1946 to 44 days in 1990. The maximum rate of increase rose from 0.065 loge day−1 in 1946 to 0.112 loge day−1 in 1990. The annual maximum declined from 9863 cell ml−1 in 1946 to 2278 cell ml−1 in 1968 and then increased to 6159 cell ml−1 in 1990. The annual geometric mean decreased from 61 cell ml−1 in 1946 to 5 cell ml−1 in 1968 and remained nearly constant subsequently. 4 In many cases, the precise underlying causes of these changes were not apparent. However, the increase with time of rate of increase in the spring appeared to be linked to a later start and hence growth under higher light. There was no significant cyclical change in any of the descriptors studied