The discussion below provides background information on lake water quality and key sampling parameters.

 

Oligotrophic lakes are generally deep and clear with little aquatic plant growth. These lakes maintain sufficient dissolved oxygen in the cool, deep bottom waters during late summer to support cold-water fish such as trout and whitefish.
 

Eutrophic lakes have poor clarity and support abundant aquatic plant growth. In deep eutrophic lakes, the cool bottom waters usually contain little or no dissolved oxygen. Therefore, these lakes can only support warm and cool-water fish such as bass and pike.
 

Lakes that fall between the two extremes of oligotrophic and eutrophic are called mesotrophic lakes.