A modeling approach to simulate impact of climate change in lake water quality: Phytoplankton growth rate assessment

Global climate change induced by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases (especially CO₂) is expected to include changes in precipitation, wind speed, incoming solar radiation, and air temperature. These major climate variables directly influence water quality in lakes by altering changes in flow and water temperature balance. High concentration of nutrient enrichment and expected variability of climate can lead to periodic phytoplankton blooms and an alteration of the neutral trophic balance. As a result, dissolved oxygen levels, with low concentrations, can fluctuate widely and algal productivity may reach critical levels. In this work, we will present: 1) recent results of GCMs climate scenarios downscaling project that was held at the University of Derby, UK.; 2) current/future comparative results of a new mathematical lake eutrophication model (LEM) in which output of phytoplankton growth rate and dissolved oxygen will be presented for Suwa lake in Japan as a case study. The model parameters were calibrated for the period of 1973–1983 and validated for the period of 1983–1993. Meteorologic, hydrologic, and lake water quality data of 1990 were selected for the assessment analysis. Statistical relationships between seven daily meteorological time series and three airflow indices were used as a means for downscaling daily outputs of Hadley Centre Climate Model (HadCM2SUL) to the station sub-grid scale.