One of today's major environmental issues is algal blooms linked to eutrophication of lakes and oceans. That is a result of anthropogenic influence with nutrient loads (including phosphorus) from agriculture and industry, which benefits primary production (phytoplankton). Studies have shown that phosphorus availability in the water column can be limited by liming, therefore could be a way to counteract eutrophication. This was tested in the agriculturally surrounded lake Tåkern in southern Sweden, which in its present state is an internationally important bird lake and therefore in several respects would be affected by eutrophication. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether liming would be a good solution to solve any future eutrophication problems in Lake Tåkern. Liming experiments were performed in mesocosms during April 2015 with a mixture of limestone and slaked lime. Quantity and diversity of plankton and water chemical variables were measured before and after liming. Moreover, samples of phytoplankton from a similar experiment conducted in July 2014 were analyzed. Liming did not show any effect on neither phyto- nor zooplankton when performed in spring of 2015. During summer of 2014, there was an increase in number of phytoplankton (ml-1 ) and chlorophyll in controls while the study showed constant levels in treated mesocosms. For zooplankton there was no significant effects of liming on neither quantity nor diversity. Results of this study suggest that liming is not the most appropriate method to resolve eutrophication in Lake Tåkern.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-130869 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Gustavsson, Maria |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Biologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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