| Abstract: | In lakes which experience water quality problems due to the nuisance growth of blue-green algae, summer concentrations of chlorophyll a may not always be a meaningful measure of water quality for making management decisions. Models for the prediction of summer mean blue-green algal biomass were thus developed from data collected from five systems located in North America and Sweden. It is suggested that the model of choice is log BG =?0.142 + 0.596 log TP – 0.963 log Z, where BG is the biomass of blue-green algae (g m?3), TP is the concentration of total phosphorus (mg m?3), and Z is the mean depth of the lake (m). When coupled to current loading models, this model can potentially be used to assess the impacts of phosphorus loading reductions on threshold odor in water supplies. |
