Since the early part of the 20th century, lakes have been classified according to their trophic state. "Trophic" means nutrition or growth. A eutrophic ("well-nourished") lake has high nutrients and high plant growth. An oligotrophic lake has low nutrient concentrations and low plant growth. Mesotrophic lakes fall somewhere in between eutrophic and oligotrophic lakes. While lakes may be lumped into a few trophic classes, each lake has a unique constellation of attributes that contribute to its trophic status. Three main factors regulate the trophic state of a lake:

1.Rate of nutrient supply

• Bedrock geology of the watershed
• Soils
• Vegetation
• Human landuses and management

2.Climate

• Amount of sunlight
• Temperature
• Hydrology (precipitation + lake basin turnover time)

3.Shape of lake basin (morphometry)

• Depth (maximum and mean)
• Volume and surface area
• Watershed to lake surface area ratio (A_w : A_o)

Trophic status is a useful means of classifying lakes and describing lake processes in terms of the productivity of the system. Basins with infertile soils release relatively little nitrogen and phosphorus leading to less productive lakes, classified as oligotrophic or mesotrophic. Watersheds with rich organic soils, or agricultural regions enriched with fertilizers, yield much higher nutrient loads, resulting in more productive, eutrophic (even hyper-eutrophic) lakes.

Eutrophication, the progress of a lake toward a eutrophic condition, is often discussed in terms of lake history. A typical lake is said to age from a young, oligotrophic lake to an older, eutrophic lake. Geological events, such as glaciation, created lakes in uneven land surfaces and depressions. The landscapes surrounding lakes were often infertile, and thus many lakes were oligotrophic. Eventually some of the shoreline and shallow areas supported colonizing organisms that decomposed unconsolidated materials into reasonably fertile sediments. Active biological communities developed and lake basins became shallower and more eutrophic as decaying plant and animal material accumulated on the bottom. Shallow lakes tend to be more productive than deep lakes, in part because they do not stratify, thereby allowing nutrients to remain in circulation and accessible to plants. They also tend to have a smaller lake volume, so nutrient loading from their watershed has a larger impact. There are undoubtedly exceptions to this typical progression from oligotrophy to eutrophy,where geology, topography, and lake morphology caused eutrophic conditions from the start.

This concept of lake aging has unfortunately been interpreted by some as an inevitable and irreversible process whereby a lake eventually "dies." In fact, many oligotrophic lakes have persisted as such since the last glaciation and some ultra-oligotrophic lakes, such as Lake Tahoe may have been unproductive for millions of years. Furthermore, research in paleolimnology has provided evidence that contradicts the idealized version of a lake becoming more and more eutrophic as it ages. Studies of sediment cores have suggested that the algal productivity of Minnesota lakes actually may have fluctuated a great deal during the past 12 - 14,000 years (the period since the last glaciation). Changes in climate and watershed vegetation seem to have both increased and decreased lake productivity over this period. Some lakes probably experienced high rates of photosynthesis fairly soon after glacial retreat and then became less productive until recent times. It is also possible that water sources for some lakes have changed over the past thousands of years through diversions of stream flow, for example. In such cases water supplies to a lake (and therefore nutrient supplies) could have changed, leading to changes in the lake's productivity.

However, lakes may be culturally eutrophied by accelerating their natural rate of nutrient inflow. This occurs through poor management of the watershed and introduction of human wastes through failing septic systems. Such changes may occur over periods of only decades and are reversible if anthropogenic nutrient loading can be controlled. In the 1960s this was a serious issue, exemplified by the hyper-eutrophic condition of Lake Erie. Although it was pronounced "dead," it eventually returned to less eutrophic conditions, when major point sources of phosphorus were controlled in the early 1970s (by spending millions of dollars to build advanced wastewater treatment plants).

In North America, most of the problems associated with the direct discharge of domestic wastewater have been successfully mitigated. Now the regulatory focus is on the much more difficult problem of controlling non-point sources (NPS) of nutrient pollution such as agricultural drainage, stormwater runoff, and inadequate on-site septic systems. NPS pollution is particularly difficult to address because it is diffuse, not attributable to a small number of polluters, and associated with fundamental changes in the landscape, such as agriculture, urbanization and shoreline development.

An excellent discussion of the factors and issues relating to natural versus cultural eutrophication is a paper called: The Algal Bowl- A Faustian View of Eutrophication, (by J.R. Vallentyne, 1972, Federation Proceedings, Vol 32 (7), pp1754-7. American Society of Biological Chemists Symposium on Man and his Environment at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, NJ, USA, April 10, 1972).