Nutrient matters in saline lakes of McMurdo Oasis in the 1976-77 summer season

Abstract

In the 1976-77 austral summer, the distribution of nutrient matters was studied for the waters of Home Lake at Cape Royds of Ross Island, Lake Vanda in the Wright Valley, Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley and Lake Joyce in the Pearse Valley in the dry valleys of Victoria Land in the Antarctic. High concentration of PO_4-P was found in Home Lake, reflecting presumably the influence of the excretions of the Adelie penguin and the skua around the lake. In general, the vertical distribution pattern of nutrient matters in Lakes Vanda and Bonney was similar to those revealed by the previous studies, although the contents of NH_4-N in the lakes were considerably different from those of the previous works. In addition, high contents of inorganic nitrogen components (NO_3-N and NH_4-N) were found in Lake Joyce. This result is consistent with that inorganic nitrogen components in the lakes of the dry valleys are generally abundant. These nitrogen components were thought to be supplied by glacial meltwater and from lake sediment. However, the studies on the analytical methods should further be required for the determination of NH_4-N and PO_4-P in highly saline waters.