Land Use Changes Do Not Rapidly Change the Trophic State of a Deep Lake. Amvrakia Lake, Greece

Abstract

The study of physicochemical and biological parameters can assess the trend of a lake’s trophic state. A trophic state index (TSI) was used to assess eutrophication of LakeAmvrakia. Total phosphorus and chlorophyll concentrations that recorded were generally at the same level with those recorded in previous years, a fact which indicates that lake’s tro phic state did not change. But in the past ten years , agricultural uses have been modified by almost 25% of the catch ment area, because of the major reduction of tobacco cultivation. One year of monthly monitoring, in nine sampling stations can report this result. Even if the catchment is small and the agricultural areas are the 47% of the basin, the wa ter quality of the lake did not change. The trophic state is stable probably because the lake is deep monomictic, and seasonally anoxic. For this reason internal phosphorus contribution is very important in the deep hypolimnion.