Primary Production and Nutrients in Ogac Lake, a Landlocked Fiord on Baffin Island

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Author: McLaren, Ian A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1969
• Subjects: General Medicine; Baffin Island; Baffin
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f69-140; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f69-140

Primary production was about 12 g/m 2 in the middle basin of Ogac Lake during 1962. Production was limited by available N, probably largely by amount of nitrate available at the end of winter. Production was largely concentrated in narrow strata — one descending from near the surface in June to occupy nutrient-rich deep water in summer, and another developing at the halocline in summer, possibly sustained by nutrients from freshwater kill of the littoral biota in 1962.Polyethylene columns, 1 m in diameter and 30.5 m long, were set between the fresh surface and anoxic depth of the middle basin in 1962. A four-fold increase of nitrate and a two and a half-fold increase of phosphate led to a parallel uptake of the two nutrients in the columns, and to an approximately five-fold increase in mean amount of chlorophyll and a seven-fold increase in primary production compared with the lake during the period of the fertilization experiment.