Castle Lake Projects

Water quality, nutrient cycling, and pelagic plankton production

Project summary:

Building on Castle Lake’s existing pelagic nutrient monitoring program, nutrient levels (including nitrate/ nitrite, ammonium, total and soluble reactive phosphorus) are monitored weekly, during the ice free months (May-October) at the index sampling station set up by UC Davis in 1959. Samples are collected at depth (0-32 m) using a Van-Dorn sampler. Nutrient analysis is performed on site at the Castle Lake Limnological Laboratory according to EPA standard protocols used as part of the regular monitoring program . Pelagic primary and secondary production (phytoplankton and zooplankton, respectively) are also measured at the same location and frequency following methods used by CLEREP over in the last 50+ years.