A dissolved oxygen budget model for Lake Erie in summer

SUMMARY. In this paper we extend a vertical mixing model of Lake Erie with an oxygen budget model. The model was tested against data gathered in the summers of 1979 and 1980 with good results, showing that it is capable of simulating vertical distributions of temperature and dissolved oxygen over relatively short time periods. The results underline the importance of turbulent mixing in distributing oxygen throughout the water column in the Central Basin of the lake. In addition, the results indicate that production and respiration processes dominate the budget under the influence of low wind speeds, while surface fluxes dominate during periods of high wind. Bottom mixing delays the onset of anoxic conditions at the sediment/water interface by distributing the sediment demand over the 5–6 m depth of the bottom mixed layer.