Nutrient Data in Fanshawe Reservoir, Thames River, Ontario

The overarching objective of MOECC Thames River Phosphorus Dynamics Study is to improve the conceptual as well as quantitative understanding of how nutrient loadings from the landscape translate to nutrient loadings to receiving water bodies after retention, remobilization and transformation processes in the Thames River channel and its tributaries, as well as to provide an improved understanding of the potential in-stream interventions which could decrease sediment and nutrient loading in the basin. Fanshawe Reservoir was selected for study due to its potential role as a modifier of phosphorus speciation and load, integrating loading from a large area of the Upper Thames watershed before its eventual discharge to Lake St Clair and the western basin of Lake Erie. The data collected will be used to calibrate and validate a model in CE-QUAL-W2 as well as produce a multi-seasonal P mass balance for the reservoir at a monthly resolution. This data collected will also be used to support the project titled "Lake Futures: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Lakes and Their Watersheds". Lake Futures is a Pillar 3 project under the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Study sites upstream, downstream and within the reservoir are being sampled biweekly. Sampling includes collection of water and sediment samples, acquisition of depth profiles for various parameters (pH, redox potential, temperature, conductivity), measurement of pumped samples from the middle of the epilimnion and hypolimnion using a YSI probe, collection of sediment cores using a percussion gravity corer and sampling of sediment traps. The period of data collection commenced in January 2018 and is scheduled to end in spring 2019. A peristaltic pump is being used to collect samples in the water column, sediment is collected using an Eckman grab sampler. All samples collected thus far have been analyzed in Ecohydrology Research Group Laboratory facilities.

Van Cappellen, P., Kao, T. and Parsons, C. (2018) Nutrient Data in Fanshawe Reservoir, Thames River, Ontario. Waterloo, Canada: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN). Unpublished Data.

https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/PDCSearchDOI.jsp?doi_id=12959