New publication explores phosphorus cycling in a large shallow lake (Lake St. Clair, USA-Canada)

A new paper in Water Resources Research, co-authored by ERG members Serghei Bocaniov and Philippe Van Cappellen, assesses the fate of phosphorus loads to Lake St. Clair. The outflow of this fairly large but shallow lake enters Lake Erie, which has been experiencing re-eutrophication since the mid-1990s. The key motivation of the paper is therefore to determine how much phosphorus is retained in Lake St. Clair and how much of it is exported to Lake Erie where it can promote algal growth. A key finding is that despite a short water residence time of on 9 days, Lake St. Clair still retains 17% of its total phosphorus and 35% of its dissolved phosphorus inputs. The paper can be accessed here.