ABSTRACT
Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the United States, is the source of fresh water to the Everglades. To the north, in the Kissimmee River Basin, major land uses are ranching and dairy farms, and as a result, excessive nutrient loads of phosphorus have entered the lake for more than three decades, resulting in cultural eutrophication. About 40% of the entire lake bed is covered with black, carbonate, organic phosphorus-enriched mud (Mehta et al. 1989). This phosphorusladen sediment can be resuspended into the water column by wind and wave action (Maceina and Soballe 1990) and can be a primary source of phosphorus to the water column (Evans 1994) through the diffusion and desorption processes, which is highly related to the shear stress of the sediment bed.
