Changes in land-leaching nitrogen and its linkages to lake algal blooms in China
Kong, Mengxiang ; Guan, Qi ; Feng, Lian ; Zheng, Chunmiao and Tang, Jing LU
(2025)
In Environmental Research: Ecology
4(2).
- Abstract
Over the past 50 years, nutrient discharge into freshwater ecosystems has significantly increased due to intensive fertilizer application in China. This has led to frequent environmental issues associated with nutrient enrichment, such as algal blooms, in a number of individual lakes. However, the linkages between terrestrial nutrient sources and algal bloom occurrence (BO) at large scales remains under-explored. Here, we simulated the long-term changes in nitrogen (N) leaching from terrestrial ecosystems using a dynamic vegetation model Lund-Potsdam-Jena general ecosystem simulator at the national scale from 1979 to 2018, and examined its connection to satellite-derived BO in 56 large lakes across China. Our findings reveal that N... (More)
Over the past 50 years, nutrient discharge into freshwater ecosystems has significantly increased due to intensive fertilizer application in China. This has led to frequent environmental issues associated with nutrient enrichment, such as algal blooms, in a number of individual lakes. However, the linkages between terrestrial nutrient sources and algal bloom occurrence (BO) at large scales remains under-explored. Here, we simulated the long-term changes in nitrogen (N) leaching from terrestrial ecosystems using a dynamic vegetation model Lund-Potsdam-Jena general ecosystem simulator at the national scale from 1979 to 2018, and examined its connection to satellite-derived BO in 56 large lakes across China. Our findings reveal that N leaching exhibited significantly increasing trends in 74.5% of the national landmass, with an overall rate of 0.40 kg N ha−1 yr−2 for the past four decades. Using a 95% quantile regression model, we analyzed the linkage between N leaching and BO from 2003 to 2018. The results indicated significantly positive correlations in the lakes of the Yangtze Plain during autumn and the lakes of northern China and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau during both summer and autumn. These findings suggest that terrestrial N discharge critically contributes to algal bloom variations in warmer seasons. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of escalating N discharge from terrestrial ecosystems and highlights the potential benefits of fertilization management in mitigating and controlling inland water eutrophication in China.
(Less)
- author
- Kong, Mengxiang
; Guan, Qi
; Feng, Lian
; Zheng, Chunmiao
and Tang, Jing
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-06-30
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- algal blooms, LPJ-GUESS model, nitrogen leaching, terrestrial ecosystems
- in
- Environmental Research: Ecology
- volume
- 4
- issue
- 2
- article number
- 025002
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105012930576
- ISSN
- 2752-664X
- DOI
- 10.1088/2752-664X/adb1ec
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
- id
- ab59df6b-f2a8-4fe6-96ad-39641141cce2
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-15 14:20:19
- date last changed
- 2025-12-15 14:21:30
@article{ab59df6b-f2a8-4fe6-96ad-39641141cce2,
abstract = {{<p>Over the past 50 years, nutrient discharge into freshwater ecosystems has significantly increased due to intensive fertilizer application in China. This has led to frequent environmental issues associated with nutrient enrichment, such as algal blooms, in a number of individual lakes. However, the linkages between terrestrial nutrient sources and algal bloom occurrence (BO) at large scales remains under-explored. Here, we simulated the long-term changes in nitrogen (N) leaching from terrestrial ecosystems using a dynamic vegetation model Lund-Potsdam-Jena general ecosystem simulator at the national scale from 1979 to 2018, and examined its connection to satellite-derived BO in 56 large lakes across China. Our findings reveal that N leaching exhibited significantly increasing trends in 74.5% of the national landmass, with an overall rate of 0.40 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−2</sup> for the past four decades. Using a 95% quantile regression model, we analyzed the linkage between N leaching and BO from 2003 to 2018. The results indicated significantly positive correlations in the lakes of the Yangtze Plain during autumn and the lakes of northern China and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau during both summer and autumn. These findings suggest that terrestrial N discharge critically contributes to algal bloom variations in warmer seasons. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of escalating N discharge from terrestrial ecosystems and highlights the potential benefits of fertilization management in mitigating and controlling inland water eutrophication in China.</p>}},
author = {{Kong, Mengxiang and Guan, Qi and Feng, Lian and Zheng, Chunmiao and Tang, Jing}},
issn = {{2752-664X}},
keywords = {{algal blooms; LPJ-GUESS model; nitrogen leaching; terrestrial ecosystems}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
number = {{2}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Environmental Research: Ecology}},
title = {{Changes in land-leaching nitrogen and its linkages to lake algal blooms in China}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/adb1ec}},
doi = {{10.1088/2752-664X/adb1ec}},
volume = {{4}},
year = {{2025}},
}