Significant Temporal and Spatial Variability in Nutrient Concentrations in a Chinese Eutrophic Shallow Lake and Its Major Tributaries
1
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Environmental Science, Nanjing 210036, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
3
Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, Muskegon, MI 49441, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Bommanna Krishnappan
Water 2022, 14(2), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020217
Received: 18 November 2021
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Revised: 8 January 2022
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Accepted: 10 January 2022
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Published: 12 January 2022
(This article belongs to the Section Water Quality and Contamination)
Sediment nutrients can be released to the surface water when hydraulic disturbance becomes strong in shallow lakes, which contributes to nutrient enrichment and subsequent lake eutrophication in the water column. To explore the seasonal variations and spatial distributions exhibited by nutrients in the water column, surface sediment, and pore water of Lake Yangcheng and its major tributaries, we determined the concentrations of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) throughout the lake in different seasons of 2018. Total N (TN) and total P (TP) concentrations in the connected rivers were much greater than those in the lake, indicating that external loading greatly contributed to the nutrient enrichment. TN concentration in the water column was highest in the winter, whereas TP peaked in the summer. A similar temporal pattern was observed for TN and TP in the sediment with maxima in the winter and minima in the summer; however, nutrients in the pore water were highest in the summer, in contrast to the temporal variation in the sediment. Additionally, high TN values in the water column and high TP in the three compartments were distributed primarily in the west part of the lake, while high TN concentrations in the sediment and pore water were observed mainly in the east portion of the lake. According to the enrichment factor index (an indicator evaluating the nutrient enrichment by comparing the detected contents and standard values), nutrients in the lake sediment were severely enriched with TN and TP averaging 2195.8 mg/kg and 543.0 mg/kg, respectively. The vertical distribution of TN and TP generally exhibited similar decreasing patterns with an increase in sediment depth, suggesting mineralization of TN and TP by microbes and benthic organisms. More attention and research are needed to understand the seasonality of nutrient exchange across the sediment–water interface, especially in eutrophic lakes.
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Keywords:
nitrogen; phosphorus; nutrient enrichment; sediment; shallow lakes
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MDPI and ACS Style
Su, X.; Steinman, A.D.; Zhang, Y.; Ling, H.; Wu, D. Significant Temporal and Spatial Variability in Nutrient Concentrations in a Chinese Eutrophic Shallow Lake and Its Major Tributaries. Water 2022, 14, 217. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020217
AMA Style
Su X, Steinman AD, Zhang Y, Ling H, Wu D. Significant Temporal and Spatial Variability in Nutrient Concentrations in a Chinese Eutrophic Shallow Lake and Its Major Tributaries. Water. 2022; 14(2):217. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020217
Chicago/Turabian StyleSu, Xiaomei, Alan D. Steinman, Yunlin Zhang, Hong Ling, and Dan Wu. 2022. "Significant Temporal and Spatial Variability in Nutrient Concentrations in a Chinese Eutrophic Shallow Lake and Its Major Tributaries" Water 14, no. 2: 217. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020217
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