Trophic state, nutrient balance and carrying capacity of Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz “Bacurato” hydroelectric reservoir, Sinaloa, México.

Abstract

Floating cages culture is a good alternative to increase fish production in reservoirs; however, this emerging activity involves the introduction of additional loads of nutrients, mainly nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), through excreta and unconsumed feed. For this reason, it is necessary to know the carrying capacity of the systems in order to protect the original environmental conditions. In that sense, the main objective of this study is to estimate hydrological and mass balance, trophic state and the carrying capacity of "Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (Bacurato)” reservoir. The main results indicate that the dam behaves, as a monomictic system; the main source of contributions to the dam are the tributaries (Sinaloa River). It was also possible to verify that the dam presents phosphorus as the limiting nutrient and, according to the Carlson index, could be classify as an oligo-mesotrophic system. The carrying capacity necessary to transform the oligo-mesotrophic to eutrophic conditions was 3,080 t of culture biomass.