EMPIRICAL-EVIDENCE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF SEDIMENT RESUSPENSION IN LAKES

This paper reviews the empirical evidence for bottom sediment resuspension, which has been documented in many aquatic systems, and attempts to put those observations into a predictive framework. The evidence suggests that resuspension is episodic in all systems with the spatial extent of resuspension being determined by the wind speed, duration of disturbance, effective lake fetch and lake morphometry. The rates of deposition of resuspended material vary greatly with measurements recorded between 0.5 and 50 g m-2 d-1. In many systems and at many times of year resuspended material comprises the majority of the flux of particles to lake bottoms. An order-of-magnitude estimate of the long-term contribution of resuspended material to the total flux of particulate matter is 85%.