Lake sediment resuspension and caused phosphate release--a simulation study.

Intact sediment cores and wet/dried surficial sediments sampled from the two sublakes in Taihu Lake, Meiliang Bay and Wuli Lake, were incubated in the laboratory to determine the effects of resuspension on internal phosphorus loading by simulating different resuspension events. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) release from undisturbed core sediment sampled in the Meiliang Bay and Wuli Lake in July 1998 was 1.53 mg/m2 and 2.24 mg/m2 within 4 days, respectively. However during one hour experimental simulation of resuspension, SRP increased by 0.041 mg/L and 0.077 mg/L in the above cores, which indicate that a typical resuspension event in the lake would be accompanied by the release of 10.77 mgSRP/m2 and 23.1 mgSRP/m2, respectively. The internal phosphorus loading induced by resuspension is estimated to be 8-10 times greater than the release from undisturbed sediment. SRP release from the dried sediments during simulation of resuspension was mainly dependent on the disturbing intensity. Only when the wind strength gets to certain level, the influence of wind speed on phosphorus release appears significant, indicating that an exchangeable P pool, capable of altering equilibrium conditions in the lake areas, is built up under strongly wind-exposed resuspension events.