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Nutrient Cycling and Removal in Watersheds

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Dr. Dan Dai

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Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences Department, University of Flori-da, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Interests: nutrients; eutrophication; water quality; ecohydrology; water pollu-tion; land use; solute dynamics; water sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nutrient pollution is one of the most serious and costly environmental crises, with adverse effects that significantly impact water safety, aquatic ecosystems, human health, and economic activities on a global scale. Understanding and managing nutrient cycling and removal in watersheds is therefore critical for developing effective strategies to mitigate these wide-ranging impacts and ensure the long-term health of aquatic ecosystems, water sustainability, and human benefits.

This Special Issue, “Nutrient Cycling and Removal in Watersheds”, will concentrate on the dynamics of nutrients within receiving waterbodies and watershed ecosystems, emphasizing both natural cycling processes and removal and management strategies. Its scope encompasses:

Nutrient Cycling: examining the source, mobilization, and delivery of nutrients through various components of watershed ecosystems, including the soil, water, vegetation, and atmosphere.
Removal Mechanisms: investigating natural and technological or engineered processes for nutrient removal within watersheds, such as riparian buffers, wetlands, and advanced wastewater treatment systems.
Watershed-scale Nutrient Management: exploring integrated approaches to nutrient management at the watershed level, considering land use patterns, hydrological processes, and ecosystem services.
Eutrophication Prevention: focusing on strategies to prevent excess nutrient loading into aquatic systems, thereby mitigating the risk of eutrophication and algal blooms.
Nutrient Stoichiometry: analyzing how nutrient ratios change throughout the watershed and impact the ecosystem’s functioning and services.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive overview of current research on nutrient cycling and removal strategies within watershed contexts, emphasizing both our theoretical understanding of these processes and their practical applications in watershed management.

Dr. Dan Dai
Guest Editor

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Research

45 pages, 3412 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microalgae as Bioindicators of Changes in Permafrost Catchments: A Reference Area of the Olyokma Nature Reserve, Yakutia

by Sophia Barinova, Viktor A. Gabyshev, Olga I. Gabysheva and Eduard M. Gabyshev

Water 2025, 17(11), 1686; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17111686 - 2 Jun 2025

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Abstract

Olyokma Nature Reserve, where we conducted our research, is in Eastern Siberia in the middle taiga zone in an area characterized by continuous permafrost. This is the only protected area in the region with a complete reserve regime, where there is no human activity. Here, we studied 14 different types of water bodies located along the Olyokma River valley, 13 of which were studied for the first time. For some of the studied water bodies, a high content of biogenic elements was noted, which may be associated with the characteristics of permafrost water bodies, which are under nutrient release from permafrost thaw. The concentration of several biogenic elements, including ammonium, nitrates and phosphates, increases in the water of the lakes toward the bottom of the river valley. In the composition of various communities of these water bodies, including both planktonic and non-planktonic, we identified 246 species and varieties of microalgae. The abundance and biomass of phytoplankton, as well as the number of species, decreased down the river valley. At the same time, at the upper stations there were more diatoms; while at the stations down the valley, green algae came to the fore; and even lower down, cyanobacteria prevailed. At the lower stations, the indicators of microalgae development were minimal. In accordance with the bioindicative properties of microalgae, a decrease in the trophic status of water bodies was noted down the river valley, which, in our opinion, is a characteristic feature of the waters of an undisturbed catchment basin in the permafrost area. This indicates that the studied aquatic ecosystem changes within a set of environmental and biological indicators, that is, it exists in natural conditions for this catchment basin. Research on the territory of Olyokma Nature Reserve allowed us to obtain information on natural transformation and removal of nutrients in permafrost catchments, while excluding the likelihood of anthropogenic impact on these processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling and Removal in Watersheds)

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13 pages, 2131 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prediction of Three Sediment Phosphorus Indexes on Water Column Phosphorus Across Seasons in the Xiashan Reservoir, Northern China

by Wei Liu, Fang Hu, Songjie Fu, Zhenjun Liu, Yongchao Yu, Shan Jiang, Lanwei Liang, Xuemei Chen, Yang Jiao, Sen Gu and Qingman Li

Water 2025, 17(2), 218; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17020218 - 15 Jan 2025

Viewed by 624

Abstract

Internal phosphorus (P) loading is a key driver of waterbody eutrophication. Various sediment P indexes are developed to assess sediment P risks by linking them to water column P, but their seasonal reliability remains underexplored. This study evaluated, for the first time, sediment P status in the Xiashan reservoir, a large shallow reservoir in northern China serving 9.4 million people. The ability of three P indexes, including exchangeable P (Ex-P), Olsen P (Olsen-P), and diluted HCl-extractable P (HCl-P), to predict water column P concentrations was tested across February, May, and August. Sediments in the Xiashan reservoir exhibited moderate total P levels (531–650 mg kg⁻¹) but high P availability, with Ex-P, Olsen-P, and HCl-P in ranges of 19–35, 58–101, and 327–444 mg kg⁻¹, respectively, likely due to sandy composition. Water column P concentrations significantly correlate with August sediment P indexes (r = 0.42–0.81) but not with February and May sediments, highlighting the ability of August sediment P indexes to predict water column P across seasons. Sampling in August is recommended to efficiently identify critical zones for internal P loading, with Ex-P as the preferred indicator given its simple extraction and strong correlation with water column P (r = 0.81). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling and Removal in Watersheds)

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