Nutrient limitation determinations for a Texas watershed

Abstract

This study involves the development of techniques of limiting nutrient determinations for the specific conditions found in a Texas river, the Trinity. The methods presently available for the determination of which factors may limit algal growth in a river system have been developed for the conditions present in northern lakes. These methods are often not applicable in Texas rivers because Texas river have, in general, a much greater turbidity than the northern waters. Because turbidity has been shown to influence the results of limiting nutrient determinations, the purpose of this study was to develop techniques that would minimize the problems of turbidity when making limiting nutrient determinations. Like other techniques for determining limiting factor the methods developed in this study were on the concept of nutrient spike. Carbon-14 methods of analysis were determined to be of value in this study for low turbidity samples, but not with high turbidity samples. Colloidal clays appeared to influence the results by quenching the beta rays emitted by the carbon-14 and, under certain circumstances. Either adsorb or absorb the radioactive isotope. This causes the variance of the samples to be undesirably high. ...