Canandaigua Lake Subwatersheds: Time Trends in Event Loading and the Watershed Index

Abstract

From an applied science perspective, a goal of the Canandaigua Lake water quality monitoring program was the development of a statistically defensible database of ecologically important parameters that would allow stewards of the watershed to prioritize and determine which subwatershed had the largest potential impact on Canandaigua Lake. Before the 2000 sampling season, we had collected and analyzed a total of 5 1 samples (36 event and 15 event samples) taken from 20 tributaries of Canandaigua Lake. After three years of sampling, the database was large enough to provide a reasonable estimate of annual nutrient and sediment loss from the tributaries into Canandaigua Lake allowing the subwatersheds to be prioritized. In addition, it was generally clear that most of the nutrient and soil loss from subwatersheds occurred during hydrometeorological events. In this report, the results of the 2000 events are compared to the previous three years of events. We also introduce the concept of the Watershed Index as a method to assess future trends in event and non-event loading in each subwatershed.