Suspended Particulate Matter in Lakes, Rivers, and Marine Systems

By Lars Håkanson

This is a newly published work, copyright 2006.

The aim of this book is to give a state-of-the-art presentation of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in lakes, rivers and marine areas, with a focus on the roles that SPM plays in aquatic ecosystems and on modelling.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first book of its kind, and this is remarkable because SPM is very important in aquatic sciences. It regulates the transport of all types of water pollutants in dissolved and particulate phases. It regulates water clarity and the depth of the photic zone, and, hence, also primary and secondary production. SPM regulates bacterioplankton production and biomass, and, thus, also mineralization, oxygen consumption and oxygen concentrations. SPM regulates sedimentation and the use of sediments as an historical archive, e.g. of water pollutants. These matters are discussed in this book, which also presents empirical and dynamical models for SPM based on the ecosystem perspective. The aim of these models is to structure existing knowledge on the factors regulating variations among and within aquatic systems of SPM in a rational and quantitative manner. This knowledge is fundamental for an understanding of the function and structure of aquatic systems.

This book is intended as a textbook (mainly for Master’s and Ph.D. students) in aquatic sciences, but it should also attract a considerable interest from researchers in limnology, marine ecology and environmental sciences, as well as from consultants and administrators interested in management and studies of aquatic systems.

Dr. Lars Håkanson (Ph.D. in physical geography 1972, Uppsala University, Sweden) has been a professor in sedimentology (recent processes) at Uppsala University since 1992. He has been Chairman of IAEA´s international aquatic program on Validation of Model Predictions (VAMP), 1988-1994, a member of the delegation for the Åland Foundation for the Future of the Baltic, 1989-1995 and Director of the International Association for Sediment Water Science (IASWS) 1981-1996. He was President of IASWS 1990-93. He is a member of the editorial boards of Environmental Geology and Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management. He was awarded The Linné and Alfort Prizes for 1979. Dr. Håkanson has published 450 scientific papers and reports, including 13 international textbooks, 21 books/theses in Swedish and 20 contributions in international monographs.

Table of Contents

Prologue				
1. Background, Introduction and Aim	
  1.1. Fresh water versus marine systems
2. Why SPM?			
  2.1. Defining SPM		
  2.2. SPM and ecosystem function	
	2.2.1. SPM and water clarity	
	2.2.2. SPM, water clarity and primary production		
		2.2.2.1. Phytoplankton	
		2.2.2.2. Benthic algae	
		2.2.2.3. Macrophytes	
	2.2.3. SPM and bacterioplankton	
	2.2.4. SPM and secondary production	
		2.2.4.1. Zooplankton	
		2.2.4.2. Zoobenthos	
		2.2.4.3. Fish		
	2.2.5. SPM and transport of pollutants	
	2.2.6. SPM, sedimentation, and resuspension	
	2.2.7. SPM and the state variables TP, pH, and color in lakes	
	2.2.8. SPM versus latitude and altitude	
3. Methodological Aspects Related to Variations in SPM	
  3.1. Background and aim	
  3.2. Highest r2 of predictive models 	
	3.2.1. Empirically based highest r2, re2
	3.2.2. Highest reference r2, rr2
	3.2.3. The sampling formula and uncertainties in empirical data	
	3.2.4. CV and sampling period	
  3.3. Model testing and CV	
	3.3.1. Sensitivity tests	
	3.3.2. Uncertainty tests using Monte Carlo techniques	
  3.4. Kd and SPM 			
	3.4.1. Spurious correlations - Kd	
	3.4.2. River transport of SPM and spurious correlations	
4. SPM in Lakes	
  4.1. Introduction and aim	
  4.2. Empirical models for SPM	
	4.2.1. Methods and data	
	4.2.2. Statistical modelling	
	4.2.3. Conclusions	
  4.3. Dynamic modelling of SPM in lakes	
	4.3.1. Background and aim	
	4.3.2. Lake modelling – key concepts	
		4.3.2.1. Basic structure	
		4.3.2.2. Stratification and mixing	
			4.3.2.2.1. The "critical" depth from water temperature	
			4.3.2.2.2. The "critical" depth from concentration profiles	
			4.3.2.2.3. The "critical" depth from the wave equation	
			4.3.2.2.4. The "critical" depth from the ETA diagram	
		4.3.2.3. Mixing	
		4.3.2.4. Submodels for volumes	
		4.3.2.5. Basic mass-balance modelling for lakes	
	4.3.3. Comprehensive mass-balance modelling 	
		4.3.3.1. River inflow to lake	
		4.3.3.2. Lake bioproduction	
		4.3.3.3. Internal processes	
			4.3.3.3.1. Sedimentation 	
			4.3.3.3.1.1. Determination of ET areas	
			4.3.3.3.2. Resuspension	
			4.3.3.3.3. Mineralization	
		4.3.3.4. Outflow	
  4.4. Concluding remarks, specifically on the calculation routines	
  4.5. Model performance	
	4.5.1. Studied lakes and presuppositions	
	4.5.2. Objectives		
	4.5.3. Results		
		4.5.3.1. Belarussian lakes	
		4.5.3.2. Lake Kinneret	
		4.5.3.3. Lake Erken	
		4.5.3.4. Lake Balaton	
  4.6. Conclusions 	
5. SPM in Rivers	
  5.1. Background on catchment areas and the transport from land to water	
	5.1.1. Catchment area influences and simplifications	
  5.2. Empirical modelling	
	5.2.1. Databases 		
	5.2.2. Working hypotheses	
	5.2.3. Uncertainties of SPM data in rivers	
	5.2.4. Catchment area influences	
	5.2.5. Water discharge and SPM	
	5.2.6. The empirical model 	
	5.2.7. Comments 		
  5.3. Dynamical modelling 	
	5.3.1. Modifications of the lake model 	
	5.3.2. The geometry of the upstream river stretch	
	5.3.3. The catchment area submodel	
	5.3.4. The submodel for the upstream river stretches (URS)	
	5.3.5. Further calibrations of the dynamic river model	
	5.3.6. Validations			
  5.4. Concluding remar	ks	
6. Coastal Areas			
  6.1. Fundamental concepts in coastal modelling	
	6.1.1. Defining coastal area boundaries	
	6.1.2. Water exchange between the open sea and coastal areas	
		6.1.2.1. A short background of processes causing coastal water exchange	
		6.1.2.2. Submodels for water exchange	
	6.1.3. SPM and oxygen in deep water – an operational ELS model	
  6.2. Empirically based coastal models for SPM	
	6.2.1. Empirical models for Secchi depth	
	6.2.2. SPM versus Secchi depth and salinity	
  6.3. Dynamic modelling	
	6.3.1. Introduction, aim, and working hypotheses	
	6.3.2. Methods and data	
	6.3.3. The dynamic SPM model	
		6.3.3.1. Basic structure	
		6.3.3.2. Primary production of SPM	
		6.3.3.3. Inflow of SPM from the sea	
		6.3.3.4. ET and resuspension in coastal areas	
		6.3.3.5. SPM outflow	
		6.3.3.6. The panel of driving variables	
	6.3.4. Results – blind tests	
	6.3.5. Calculation and ranking of fluxes	 
	6.3.6. SPM in different coast types 	
	6.3.7. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses using Monte Carlo simulations
	6.3.8. Scenario illustrating the practical use of the dynamic SPM model
	6.3.9. Conclusions	
  6.4. SPM in open water areas – empirical modelling	
	6.4.1. Introduction and working hypotheses	
	6.4.2. Methods and data	
	6.4.3. Statistical modelling results	
		6.4.3.1. Variations among sites/events	
		6.4.3.2. Variations within sites/events	
		6.4.3.3. A statistical analysis using all data	
		6.4.3.4. Variations within and among sites/events	
		6.4.3.5. The SPM model for open water areas	
	6.4.4. Comments		
7. Epilogue 				
8. Literature References		
9. Appendices 			
  9.1. Databases for SPM	
	9.1.1. Lakes		
	9.1.2. The river database	
	9.1.3. Marine areas	
  9.2. The LakeWeb modelling approach	
	9.2.1. Outline of the model	
	9.2.2. Basic mathematical structures of the primary production unit	
	9.2.3. Basic mathematical structures of the secondary production unit	
  9.3. The submodel for water discharge 	
  9.4. The submodel for water temperatures	
  9.5. Characteristics of the lakes used in dynamic SPM modelling	
	9.5.1. Naroch Lakes (Belarus)	
	9.5.2. Lake Kinneret (Israel)	
	9.5.3. Lake Erken (Sweden)	
	9.5.4. Lake Balaton (Hungary)	
  9.6. SPM emissions from fish farms	
  9.7. SPM from land uplift	
  9.8. Estimation of sediment organic content	
  9.9. Estimation of sediment water content	
  9.10. Estimation of sediment bulk density	
10. Index