Abstract:

Abstract Trophic structure deterioration in continental water bodies (lakes and damps) has been a growing problem during the last years. Numerous factors, either natural or man-made contribute in value increments of various water quality indexes ranging toward eutrophication. Our study had objective to use remote sensing as complementary tool to study the spatial distribution and dynamics of Lake Vichuquén water quality parameters in two seasons of 2016 through the use of two satellite images of the Landsat 8 OLI sensor, with in situ and laboratory data. The Chl-a and ZSD parameters were estimated from multiple linear regression models. The results indicate that the trophic state of Lake Vichuquén corresponds to a eutrophic level in summer and mesotrophic in autumn. The laboratory analyzes establish for the summer and autumn season that the Chl-a data oscillate between 14.1 and 5.5 μg/l and for the ZSD between 3.7 and 2.5 m respectively. The increase in the levels of eutrophication of Lake Vichuquén is influenced in the first place by the seasonality and secondly by the different land uses that accelerate this type of processes; such as the plantations of radiata pine and eucalyptus, the agricultural activities and the urban areas surrounding the lake. The mean square error for each variable and each season varied in Chl-a in summer and another year 0.74 and 0.01 µg/l and ZSD 0.16 m respectively.

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