Developing Phosphorus Criteria for Minnesota Lakes

The development of practical and successful lake management strategies hinges upon setting realistic goals. Typically, management efforts have focused on the evaluation of watershed nutrient loadings and prediction of lake or reservoir eutrophlcation responses, expressed in terms of average epilimnetic phosphorus, chlorophyll a, and transparency. This paper describes a methodology for expressing lake conditions and model predictions in terms that are more meaningful to local resource managers and lake users because they relate more directly to perceived aesthetic qualities. Lake conditions are expressed in terms of the frequency or risk of nuisance" algal levels