Evaluation of recent limnological changes at Lake Apopka

Abstract

Recent changes in submersed macrophytes and water quality variables have been offered as the strongest evidence that the current restoration program at Lake Apopka will be effective (Lowe et al., 2000); however, the new beds of submersed plants in Lake Apopka are found only on hard substrates on the fringes of the lake within 40 m of shore and are protected from waves by cattails (Typha spp.). They occupy only 0.02% of the lake area, and there is no indication that they can colonize the flocculent sediments that make up 90% of the lake area. There is no correlation between annual inputs of phosphorus and total phosphorus concentrations in the lake, and patterns of change in chlorophyll and other water quality variables do not follow changes in phosphorus loads. Rather than reflecting decreases in phosphorus loading, the recent changes could be related to the harvest of benthivorous fish or are just the normal fluctuations found in lakes that have not been perturbed. Regardless of the reason the macrophytes were lost in the 1940s, the new analyses confirm our previous findings that the high turbidities in Lake Apopka are due to the resuspension of sediments, and that the fluid mud cannot support the colonization of submersed aquatic macrophytes. Even without the fluid mud, the target phosphorus concentration of 55 mg m−3 is too high to bring about the restoration of the former macrophyte beds in the lake.