The purpose of this study was to develop more efficient methods of reservoir reaeration and to determine the environmental effects of reservoir destratification. The Garton pump, a low energy, axial flow device, is designed to pump water from the surface downward to destratify and reaerate lakes and reservoirs. A 1.07-m-diameter version of the device was tested in Ham\u27s Lake (40 ha surface area, 10 m maximum depth) near Stillwater, Okla., in 1973 and 1974, and a 1.83-m-diameter version was operated in 1975. Complete thermal destratification was obtained. A 5-m-diameter version of the Garton Pump was operated in Lake of the Arbuckles (951 ha surface area, 27 m maximum depth) near Sulphur, Okla., in 1974 and 1975. Improvements in the design resulted in substantial perturbation of the physicochemical conditions of Lake of the Arbuckles in 1975. This report describes vertical variations in the two reservoirs of: (1) temperature, dissolved oxygen, and several other physicochemical parameters; (2) species composition and density of the algae populations; (3) species composition and diversity of zooplankton; (4) species composition, diversity, and density of benthic macroinvertebrates; and (5) vertical (bathymetric) distribution and growth of fish. The report also includes recommendations for further research
