100 



inferences can be detransformed to provide the necessary water- 

 column total P values for WCP estimates. 



Because of the long growing season and mild climate in Florida, 

 the annual dieback of macrophytes and nutrient release is not likely 

 to occur to the degree in Florida that it does in winter in cold- 

 temperate areas. Death and decomposition of macrophytes in warm- 

 temperate and subtropical Florida lakes are less synchronized and 

 dramatic than in colder regions. The nutrients present in 

 macrophytes are derived from the sediment, and their release to the 

 water column, however slow, does represent a source of nutrient 

 loading to lakes. Although nutrients in macrophytes of Florida lakes 

 may be less apt to appear in the water column in a seasonal pulse, 

 macrophytes represent a substantial component of primary 

 production and their nutrients are as germane to the concept of 

 trophic state as the water-column nutrients contained in 

 phytoplankton. 



