Chloride and total phosphorus budgets for Lake Nipissing, headwater of Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Anthropogenic sources of total phosphorus (TP) and chloride (Cl−) to lakes and rivers have been issues of concern for many decades in the Great Lakes Basin with northern Boreal Shield headwater tributaries less well studied. In the Sturgeon River – Lake Nipissing – French River basin, a headwater basin of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, water quality monitoring of major inflows to Lake Nipissing, the third largest inland lake located entirely within Ontario, is only available from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. During the period of 2015–2018, we conducted monthly water quality surveys of major and minor inflows for two water years and have generated the first chloride (Cl−) and total phosphorus (TP) elemental budgets for the lake. Review of available long-term concentration data indicate decreasing TP concentrations by decade in major inflows, but select inflows continue to exhibit concentrations above provincial objectives, including inflows from agricultural areas that are no longer part of provincial monitoring programs. Some inflows also show high average Cl− concentrations with potential influences (e.g., road salt, agricultural activities) to stream water quality throughout the year. Water and elemental budgets indicate that while specific runoff (l/s/km2) is quite similar across contributing catchments, yields of Cl− and TP (kg/ha/yr) are disproportionately higher in catchments with urban and agricultural activities. While uncertainties in the water balance and elemental yields remain, this first effort to quantify annual elemental budgets of Lake Nipissing highlights the need to develop community-based, spatially distributed water quality surveying for long-term ecosystem monitoring and future planning.