Water Quality Snapshot – From the Deep
All of the people who monitor our lake’s water quality are doing a great service. The monitors take water samples and record data on a weekly basis. Because this data gathering has been going on for decades, we can see changes to our lake and have data to back up claims of these changes.
On Labor Day, Teresa and Don Kretchmer visited Fullers Deep and Governors Deep. This is one of the years when all of the oxygen is essentially gone below 10-11 meters (35 feet). Besides being tough on fish that like the cold water at the bottom of the lake, there is always the risk that phosphorus can be released from sediments when oxygen concentrations are low. We collected both surface layer (0-10m, 0-31 ft) and deep phosphorus samples (20 m, 62 feet) to evaluate that possibility. The good news is that when I have done this in the past (in years with no oxygen) there has been no evidence that large amounts of phosphorus are being released.
A much better view of these profiles can be seen by clicking on this link. Wentworth Profiles 9-2017
Don has just purchased a cyanobacteria monitoring kit and microscope with a camera and took some pictures of the “little guys” in the water. These are pictures of some of the residents of our Fullers Deep. Both the Gloeotrichia and Anabaena (now called Dolichospermum) are cyanobacteria but both were present in very low, non-worrisome concentrations on Monday. Gloeotrichia are the little fuzz balls you can see with the naked eye.
There are lots of other algae and small critters living in the lake and these are important because they are eaten fish that many people enjoy catching and eating. One little beastie is Asterionella which is a diatom (family of algae) and just looks neat.
The others are zooplankton (they eat the algae and get eaten by the fish). The Calanoid copepod is red because of carotenoid pigments (think carrots).
Lakes Lay Monitoring Program (LLMP)
| The New Hampshire Lakes Lay Monitoring (LLMP) is dedicated to preservation and sound management of lakes through citizen-based monitoring and research. Begun at the University of New Hampshire over two decades ago as one of the first citizen monitoring programs, the LLMP has been directly involved in the initiation and expansion of volunteer programs in 24 States and 11 countries. The first lake lay monitoring program in Germany was based on the NH LLMP. Through its integration of research, outreach and teaching, the LLMP provides valuable data on the lakes of New Hampshire, broad community service and a unique opportunity for hands-on learning and employment of students. The program continues to receive local and national recognition as one of the leading lake monitoring programs in the country. The LLMP is administered jointly through the Cooperative Extension and the Center for Freshwater Biology at the University of New Hampshire. |