Whole-Lake Fertilization Experiments in Coastal British Columbia Lakes: Empirical Relationships between Nutrient Inputs and Phytoplankton Biomass and Production

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Abstract
Seventeen warm monomictic coastal lakes in British Columbia were studied from 1980 to 1983. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus were applied to 13 of the lakes in some or all years of the study. In the untreated condition, lakes were ultraoligotrophic with low concentrations of nutrients (1.0–4.1 μg total P-L−1at spring overturn), of average summer chlorophyll (0.49–2.57 μg∙L−1), and of average daily primary production (3.0–10.5 mg C∙m−3∙d−1). The lakes' oligotrophic condition is sustained by their low residence time (0.2–7.3 yr) and by low nutrient inputs from the generally steep granitic drainage basins. The lakes respond predictably to nitrogen and phosphorus additions and are generally phosphorus limited, as shown by the significant positive relationships between average summer chlorophyll and total phosphorus at spring overturn (r = 0.81) in unfertilized lakes, between average summer chlorophyll and phosphorus load from fertilizer (r2 = 0.62) in fertilized lakes, by the high average particulate C:N:P ratios (152:20:1), and by the high average TN:TP ratio (89).

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