A Deterministic Model for Predicting Hourly Dissolved Oxygen Change: Development and Application to a Shallow Eutrophic Lake

Predicting dissolved oxygen (DO) change at a high frequency in water bodies is useful for water quality management. In this study, we developed a deterministic model that can predict hourly DO change in a water body with high frequency weather parameters. The study was conducted during August 2008–July 2009 in a eutrophic shallow lake in Louisiana, USA. An environment monitoring buoy was deployed to record DO, water temperature and chlorophyll-a concentration at 15-min intervals, and hourly weather data including air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity, and solar radiation were gathered from a nearby weather station. These data formed a foundation for developing a DO model that predicts rapid change of source and sink components including photosynthesis, re-aeration, respiration, and oxygen consumption by sediments. We then applied the model to a studied shallow lake that is widely representative of lake water conditions in the subtropical southern United States. Overall, the model successfully simulated high-time fluctuation of DO in the studied lake, showing good predictability for extreme algal bloom events. However, a knowledge gap still exists in accurately quantifying oxygen source produced by photosynthesis in high frequency DO modeling.