Temporal variability of physico-chemical properties of St. Naum karst springs feeding Lake Ohrid
Keywords:
Karst springs, Lake Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, temporal stability, ancient lake, spring water temperatureAbstract
Lake Ohrid is strongly affected by karstic springs. Sub-aquatic as well as surface springs provide ~27% to the overall water input of ~38 m3 s-1. This particularity of cool, clean and oxygen-rich inflowing water was an important prerequisite for the establishment of the extraordinary biodiversity of Lake Ohrid. The aim of this article is to present physico-chemical properties of the spring water located in the southern part of the lake. Eight individual springs, belonging to the larger spring complex of St. Naum, were monitored for three years. The first part of the data record revealed long-term stability of spring water characteristics. The water temperature remained constant with variability of only ~0.1 °C to ~0.2 °C. Similarly, small changes in electrical conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen and stable isotopes emphasize the low variability of the water properties. In turn, a comparison of the datasets reveals substantial differences between the eight springs in spite of their close proximity to each other. Temporal stability and spatial heterogeneity of the water properties suggest the existence of a complex and voluminous groundwater system feeding the springs, in which the spring waters are expected to be stored in large reservoirs for a long period of time. These observations imply that changes in the Lake Ohrid spring water quality may take effect with a substantial delay relative to alterations in its catchment.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2010 Biljana Jordanoska, Manuel Kunz, Trajče Stafilov, Alfred Wüest
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Macedonian Journal of Ecology and Environment applies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license to articles and supplementary material we publish. If you submit your paper for publication to Macedonian Journal of Ecology and Environment, you agree to have the CC BY license applied to your work. Under this Open Access license, you as the author agree that anyone can reuse your article in whole or part for any purpose, for free, even for commercial purposes. Anyone may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as long as the author and original source are properly cited. This facilitates freedom in re-use and also ensures that Macedonian Journal of Ecology and Environment content can be mined without barriers for the needs of research.
Author - the holder of copyrights is encouraged to sign and return the Copyright form prior to the publication of the scientific article.
Licencing:
Macedonian Journal of Ecology and Environment is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.