Example application of a continuous lake trophic state index on lakes with limited data

Lake trophic state indices have long been used to provide a measure of the trophic state of lakes. Over time it has been determined that these indices perform better when they utilize multiple metrics and provide a continuous measurement of trophic state. We utilize such a method for trophic state t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ preprints 2019-08
Main Authors: Nojavan, Farnaz, Kreakie, Betty J, Hollister, Jeffrey W, Song, Qian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bayesian analysis
Lakes
Nutrient concentrations
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Summary:Lake trophic state indices have long been used to provide a measure of the trophic state of lakes. Over time it has been determined that these indices perform better when they utilize multiple metrics and provide a continuous measurement of trophic state. We utilize such a method for trophic state that is based upon a Proportional Odds Logistic Regression (POLR) model and extend this model with a Bayesian multilevel model that predicts nutrient concentrations from universally available GIS data. This Bayesian multilevel model provides relatively accurate measures of trophic state and has an overall accuracy of 60%. The approach illustrates a method for estimating a continuous, mutli-metric trophic state index for any lake in the United States. Future improvements to the model will focus on improving overall accuracy and use variables that are more sensitive to change over time.
ISSN:2167-9843
DOI:10.7287/peerj.preprints.27913v1