Using a 1-D mixing model to simulate the vertical flux of heat and oxygen in a lake subject to episodic mixing

• Published in: Ecological modelling 2006-01, Vol.190 (1), p.41-54
• Main Authors: Bell, V.A., George, D.G., Moore, R.J., Parker, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Dissolved oxygen; Fresh water ecosystems; Freshwater; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; Lakes; Mathematical modelling; Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...); Pisces; Synecology; Thermal stratification
• ISSN: 0304-3800; 1872-7026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.02.025

A one-dimensional, two-layer lake model is used to simulate the daily temperature and oxygen profile of an English Lake in response to changes in wind, air temperature and radiation. The thermal model component derives from the TEMIX lake model originally developed by the Institute of Limnology in St. Petersburg [Mironov, D.V., Golosov, S.D., Zilitinkevitch, S.S., Kreiman, K.D., Terzhevik, A.Y., 1991. Seasonal changes of temperature and mixing conditions in a lake. In: Zilitinkevitch, S.S. (Ed.), Modelling Air–Lake Interactions. Springer-Verlag, pp. 74–90]. This paper describes the model's adaptation and its extension to incorporate dissolved oxygen to simulate periods of anoxia of short duration during summer stratification. The new oxygen model component, which is based on mass-balance principles, divides the lake into two layers in a similar way to the thermal model. Its primary purpose is to model periods of anoxia for use in studies of fish survival. The model has been tested over a 10-year period from 1991 to 1999 using daily weather data and fortnightly observations of chlorophyll a and secchi depth. Ten years of fortnightly oxygen measurements, together with 2 years of more detailed (hourly) oxygen data, indicate that simulated and observed oxygen levels are in reasonable agreement considering the sparseness of the chlorophyll observations. The balance between the relative effects of temperature and BOD on oxygen depletion is of particular importance to model accuracy.