Nutrient loading comparisons across multiple watersheds in Lake Ontario

Session: 06. - Ecosystem Health and Recovery of the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario

Agnes Richards, Environment Canada, [email protected]
Luis Leon, Environment and Climate Change Canada, [email protected]
Frank Seglenieks, Environment Canada, [email protected]
Felix Ouellet, ECCC-ECCC Environment and Climate Change Canada, [email protected]

Abstract

Recently, overproduction of phytoplankton biomass has been observed across the Lower Great Lakes.  This phenomenon is mainly caused by abundant nutrient availability of phosphorus and nitrogen. We used WATFLOOD (WF), a gridded hydrological model (10 km) to estimate real-time daily stream flow (m3/s) for the past decade. The grid extended across the Great Lakes Basin. We built a geo-database to store this large amount of model output and created spatial joins with watersheds of interest: 1) Duffins Creek, 2) Grand River, 3) Napanee River, and 4) Wilton Creek. A series of algorithms were used to estimate loadings from these watersheds using existing nutrient and flow data. Comparisons will be made between baseline conditions and extreme rain events.

1. Keyword
model testing

2. Keyword
nutrients