12708 – Particle fluxes in Crater lake and their relationship to nutrient cycling

Investigator’s Annual Reports (IAR’s) for Crater Lake National Park

Particle fluxes in Crater lake and their relationship to nutrient cycling

 

Report Number: 12708

Reporting Year: 1991

Permit Number: CRLA1991AADQ

Current Status: Checked in

Date Received: Jan 01, 1998

Principal Investigator: Jack Dymond, Oregon State University, College of Oceanography, Corvallis, OR

Additional investigator(s): Dr. Robert Collier

Park-assigned Study Id. #: CRLA1991AADQ

Permit Expiration Date: Jan 01, 1998

Permit Start Date: Jan 01, 1998

Study Starting Date: Jan 01, 1983

Study Ending Date: Jan 01, 1992

Study Status: Completed

Activity Type: Other

Subject/Discipline: Other

Objectives: To quantify the carbon and nutrient cycles in the water column and sediments of Crater Lake, Oregon. This is accomplished through analysis of materials collected by particle collectors (sediment traps) which are moored in the lake. Comparison between the fluxes of carbon and nutrients with their burial rates in the sediment as determined from sediment core analyses contains the total input of nutrients to the lake and the rates of recycling at the sediment-water interface.

Findings and Status: Comparison of the composition of particles raining to the bottom with the composition of surface sediments in Crater lake allows the determination of the fraction of the raining biogenic materials which is preserved by burial in the sediments. Less than 10% of the organic carbon and nitrogen which settles to the lake floor is preserved in the sediments. These data suggest that measurements of opal accumulation rates in the sediments is a better paliolimnological indicator than either carbon or nitrogen rates. In preparation for the final report of the 10-year limnological study, we have been working with various models of the vertical nutrient cycles in the lake using the results of our trap studies. We have been able to demonstrate that vertical mixing and particulate organic matter remineralization rates are the most sensitive parameters in the nutrient cycle which may determine the short-term level of primary production supported in the lake.

For this study, were one or more specimens collected and removed from the park but not destroyed during analyses? No

Funding provided this reporting year by NPS: 0

Funding provided this reporting year by other sources: 0

Full name of college or university: n/a

Annual funding provided by NPS to university or college this reporting year: 0

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