This thesis focuses on three areas of investigation: construction and calibration of gypsum cylinders for the measurement of water flow; quantification of the relationship between flow and macrophyte structure; and the prediction of surficial sediment size structure in the littoral. Near-bottom water flow at 34 littoral sites was quantified using gypsum dissolution. Plant surface area within three weedbeds in Lake Memphremagog (Que. - Vt.) explained 67% of the variance in flow when the effect of water depth was removed. A model relating waterflow within beds to average wind energy and plant surface area was constructed. A multivariate model developed and tested in the littoral of Lake Memphremagog explained 67% of the variance in the proportion of sediment $<$2 um in diameter (clay). The model included the physical variables of fetch, depth, and slope and biological measures of plant presence or absence and sediment organic matter. A second model required plant surface area and sediment organic matter to explain 83% of the variance in the proportion of clay at sites within weedbeds, near the depth of maximum plant biomass.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75898 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Petticrew, Ellen Lesley |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000918873, proquestno: AAINL52244, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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