Carbon to chlorophyll-a ratio in modeling long-term eutrophication phenomena

Carbon to chlorophyll-a ratio (CCHL) is formulated based on the assumption that adaptive changes in carbon to chlorophyll occur so as to maximize the specific growth rate for ambient conditions, including solar radiation and water temperature. With the dynamic CCHL, an unsteady two-layered, two-dimensional eutrophication numerical model for density stratified coastal waters has been developed. Saturated light intensity (I_S) is determined as weighted average of the light intensity for previous three days to incorporate light acclimation by phytoplankton. The bottom water anoxic condition during summer in Tolo Harbour, Hong Kong is successfully reproduced by the present method. Otherwise, the simulation with a constant CCHL gave a wrong result.