Abstract

Lake Caron is a shallow and hypereutrophic lake situated 75 km from Montreal, QC, Canada. Phosphorus has been identified primarily responsible for lake eutrophication. Sediment acts as a source of phosphorus, so it is directly related to water quality. Phosphorus dynamics within Lake Caron were investigated, considering both water and sediments. To understand the burial and diagenesis and prediction of phosphorus, selective sequential extraction was performed for surface sediments. Core sediment samples were also collected along with surface sediment. Surface sediment resulted in 131 mg/g phosphorus whereas sediment from the bottom most layer resulted in 28.7 mg/g of phosphorus which is 64.5% less than the former one. Phosphorus distribution was also calculated on the basis of different particle sizes. Particles which are smaller than 45om showed a phosphorus value 37% higher on average than the particles larger than 75om. The vertical profile of the water column was also investigated and showed a 56.5og/L higher phosphorus concentration than in the hypolimnionetic zone. To improve the water quality, a resuspension technique was applied which had gained much interest due to its contradictory results in experiments done by various researchers. Resuspension was successfully able to improve the water quality by reducing phosphorus content in water by 96.7% compared with the actual concentration before resuspension.