Hypolimnetic oxygen depletion rates in deep lakes: Effects of trophic state and organic matter accumulation

Abstract

AbstractThis study investigated the consumption of oxygen (O2) in 11 European lakes ranging from 48 m to 372 m deep. In lakes less than ~ 100 m deep, the main pathways for O2 consumption were organic matter (OM) mineralization at the sediment surface and oxidation of reduced compounds diffusing up from the sediment. In deeper lakes, mineralization of OM transported through the water column to the sediment represented a greater proportion of O2 consumption. This process predominated in the most productive lakes but declined with decreasing total phosphorous (TP) concentrations and hence primary production, when TP concentrations fell below a threshold value of ~ 10 mg P m−3. Oxygen uptake by the sediment and the flux of reduced compounds from the sediment in these deep lakes were 7.9–10.6 and 0.6–3.6 mmol m−2 d−1, respectively. These parameters did not depend on the lake's trophic state but did depend on sedimentation rates for the primarily allochthonous or already degraded OM. These results indicate that in lakes deeper than ~ 100 m, mineralization of autochthonous OM is mostly complete by the time of sedimentary burial. This explains why hypolimnetic O2 concentrations improve more rapidly following TP load reduction in deeper lakes relative to shallower lakes, where larger sediment‐based O2 consumption by settled OM and release of reduced substances may inhibit the restoration of hypolimnetic O2 concentrations.