Controversy exists about the historic shift of primary producer community structure (PPCS) in Lake Apopka, a shallow, 125‐km 2 lake in central Florida, U.S.A. The controversial questions are: was a lake‐wide shift from macrophyte to phytoplankton dominance triggered by a 1947 hurricane or tornadoes spawned by the hurricane within a few weeks or months, or was the shift forced by progressive cultural eutrophication over several...

We developed empirical models that can predict maximum allowable, nutrient loading rates or load limits (LM) for maintenance of mesotrophy in Florida’s fresh and estuarine waters. Water residence time (tw) explains most of the variation in LM previously set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Florida’s environmental agencies for total phosphorus (TP) and for total nitrogen (TN). We found that a single model for TP...