How Long Does it Take to Get Rid of Contaminants in a Lake? 

Dr. Noel Urban, nurban@mtu.edu
Post Date: 09/22/2014
Capstone/Internship Possible: Yes/Yes
Description:

Even though some contaminants (e.g., DDT) have been banned for decades, we still find high concentrations in fish from some lakes. The time required for a contaminant to be purged from a lake depends on characteristics of the lake as well as chemical characteristics of the contaminant. In this project, you will use a mathematical model of a lake food web to determine how long it will take for a lake to cleanse itself of PCBs or Mercury. As part of this project, you will evaluate how quickly fish contaminant levels would drop in Torch Lake if all local sources of PCBs and mercury were removed. This project will involve reading of scientific literature, gathering of data from reports and published papers, learning to use a mathematical model, conducting "experiments" with the model, and using statistics to compare the results of those "experiments".

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