Numerical Modeling of Toxin Production by Cyanobacteria in Lake Kasumigaura, Japan

Abstract

        Dominant species of cyanobacteria produce highly potent toxins Microcystin in a shallow and eutrophic Lake. Toxin production is generally the result of two major factors-natural processes and human interferences. Most of the existing studies are related to experiment about cyanobacteria spur blooms. Thus the purposes of this study, a three dimensional hydrodynamic ecosystem coupled model were employed and used to create a toxin production model. The numerical model was calibrated by tuning a toxin decay coefficient, half saturation constant of phosphorus and nitrogen and other input parameters for achieving a good agreement between the observations and the predictions. [This abstract is not included in the PDF]