Nutrient fluxes across the sediment-water interface and Nutrient release rates from freshwater sediments in a lake with cage fish farming

Description

Sediment plays an important role in lakes as it is both an important source of various nutrients and sink of particulated nutrients. Most of the P waste outputs from a cage fish farm are in the particulate (solid) form and it was shown that the nutrient load of these wastes significantly affected the sediment composition underneath the cage and nutrient sedimentation rates (ACRDP # CA-01-09-001 and CA-01-09-002). These changes may have had a significant effect on the nutrient cycling across the water-sediment interface and therefore it may have affected the P and N recycling in the lake. The main objective of this project is to quantify the amount of waste solid P and N that is accumulated beneath the fish cage which will re-enter the water column (internal load) and therefore become potentially available for algae and other primary producers. A combination of core sampling incubations, water chemistry and biological analysis of the cores sampled will be used to measure the degree of exchange of nutrients within the water- sediment interface.

Program Name

Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program (ACRDP)

Year(s)

2006 - 2007

Ecoregion(s)

National

Principal Investigator(s)

Cheryl Podemski
Email: PodemskiC@dfo-mpo.gc.ca