Long time scale investigation of organic particle transport and fate in Lake Erie : a ten year post audit of the Manhattan College Eutrophication Model

The long term fate of organic particles in Lake Erie is intimately associated with the eutrophication process since the creation of organic particles is due almost entirely to primary production. Hence the change in particle concentration and fate is directly associated with the change in phytoplankton biomass and the subsequent detrital particle production and sedimentation An initial approach to understanding this problem can be based upon the currently existing eutrophication models of Lake Erie. If these models are sufficiently reliable to compute the long term eutrophication history of Lake Erie, then they can be used to compute particle dynamics as well. Hence this investigation focused on the degree of validation the Lake Erie eutrophication model developed at Manhattan College during the mid 1970's (Di Toro and Connolly, 1980). Grant no. NA81RAH00004