Studies on water movements and sediments in Southern Lake Michigan : part 1[-3] ... / by John C. Ayers.

time and flushing time is close to one. -
Basins of partial accumulation receive solutes via influent
waters and discharge solutes via their effluents. Solute concentrations in the influent and effluent waters are usually different, and the concentrations of solutes observed in the basin
waters is a reflection of
influx - (losses + efflux).
Since rates of loss to sediments and by removed biological
products are relatively small, the concentration of solutes in a
basin compared to the rate of their influx is a rough measure of
the basin's effective accumulation-time.
Accumulation-time is also the effective number of time units
that a given time-unit's contribution of solutes might be expected.to remain in the basin.
Flushing time is the number of time-units that are necessary to remove a given instant's volume-content and its solutes
from a basin.
The two concepts are essentially two views of the same
process and computed times based on the two concepts are essentially comparable.
Unpublished results of USPHS Grant WP-00226-03 provide some
accumulation-time estimates for comparison. From studies of
solute concentrations in the southern basin of Lake Michigan and
from the volume of the basin, the quantities of some solutes
contained in the basin's water have been computed.
From studies of the solute concentrations in rivers
tributary to the southern basin the annual contributions of

15