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Biogeochemical Processes in Lakes, Ponds and Reservoirs of Urban Environments
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Biogeochemical Processes in Lakes, Ponds and Reservoirs of Urban Environments

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 2025

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yijun Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Renewable Natural Resources, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Interests: surface hydrology; fluvial geomorphology; biogeochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Xihua Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Interests: multi-scale surface water–groundwater system (SW-GW) interaction; migration, transformation, and traceability of nitrogen/carbon and phosphorus in surface water–groundwater system (SW-GW); research on artificial intelligence algorithms and data-driven model
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Siyue Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sate Key Laboratory of Green and Efficient Development of Phosphorus Resources, School of Environmental Ecology and Bio-logical Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory of Microbial Transfor-mation and Regulation of Biogenic Elements in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China
Interests: watershed ecology; biogeochemical cycle and global change; river runoff adaptability and material flux; water environment geochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lakes and ponds in cities and towns are integral to the urban environment. They provide numerous benefits including stormwater retention, water quality improvement, and biodiversity, in addition to recreation and property value. Whether natural or man-made, these lakes tend to be small, shallow, and strongly influenced by urban development and climate change. The unique conditions and biogeochemical processes of urban lakes have received less attention in the limnological and watershed literature. This Special Issue aims at bringing together the latest research endeavors on material transport and biogeochemical processes in lakes in urban environments. We encourage submissions reporting the recent findings in the biogeochemistry of carbon, nutrients and trace elements from field observations, laboratory characterization, modeling, and synthetic studies on urban lake systems. We especially encourage papers that stimulate critical thinking pertinent to urban lake biogeochemistry under climate change. Specific topics may include but are not limited to the following:

  • Biogeochemical processes of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus;
  • Accumulation of heavy metals and toxic elements in lake sediment;
  • Effects of urban environment on hydrochemical, thermal, and biogeochemical processes;
  • Modeling the transport and destination of metal and toxic elements in urban lakes;
  • Eutrophication of urban lakes under a changing climate;
  • Interactions of biogeochemical processes and biodiversity in urban lake systems;
  • Global assessment on greenhouse gas emissions from urban lakes and ponds.

Prof. Dr. Yijun Xu
Prof. Dr. Xihua Wang
Prof. Dr. Siyue Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • urban lakes and ponds
  • lake biogeochemistry
  • lake carbon, nutrients, and toxic elements
  • sustainable urban lake management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2666 KB  
Article
Effluent Dissolved Carbon Discharge from Two Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants to the Mississippi River
by Anamika Dristi and Yijun Xu
Water 2025, 17(17), 2589; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17172589 - 1 Sep 2025
Viewed by 1063
Abstract
Nutrient and carbon transport from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico have been investigated intensively. However, little is known about the direct human contribution of carbon from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to this large river, a source that can be termed [...] Read more.
Nutrient and carbon transport from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico have been investigated intensively. However, little is known about the direct human contribution of carbon from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to this large river, a source that can be termed as Cultural Carbon. This study analyzed dissolved carbon in effluents from two municipal WWTPs on the bank of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, USA. One of the WWTPs (WWTP North) is a conventional wastewater treatment facility with a treatment capacity of 40 million gallons per day (MGD), while the other (WWTP South) is a recently upgraded facility with a treatment capacity of 200 MGD. From September 2022 to November 2024, river water and effluent samples were collected monthly to analyze dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) concentrations and their mass transport. The study found significantly higher monthly average DIC (56.80 ± 16.51 mg/L) and DOC (29.52 ± 8.68 mg/L) concentrations in the effluent of WWTP North than in the effluent of WWTP South (DIC: 42.64 ± 10.50 mg/L and DOC: 12.93 ± 3.68 mg/L). Effluents from both WWTPs had substantially greater DOC and DIC levels than the Mississippi River water (DIC: 28.92 ± 4.91 mg/L and DOC: 5.47 ± 2.35 mg/L). WWTP North discharged, on average, 3.80 MT of DIC and 1.95 MT of DOC per day, whereas WWTP South discharged 6.27 MT of DIC and 1.92 MT of DOC per day, resulting in a total annual load of 3808 MT of DIC and 1459 MT of DOC entering the Mississippi River. Considering the large number of WWTPs within the Mississippi River Basin, these findings highlight a significant contribution of effluents to riverine carbon, suggesting that basin-wide carbon budgets and regional climate assessments must take them into account. The findings from this study can be useful for federal and state policymakers, as well as researchers and engineers involved in carbon science, climate change, and water quality assessment of the Mississippi River Basin and beyond. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biogeochemical Processes in Lakes, Ponds and Reservoirs of Urban Environments)
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13 pages, 1338 KB  
Article
Human Health Risk Assessment of Phenolic Contaminants in Lake Xingkai, China
by Liang Liu, Jinhua Gao, Yijun Sun, Yibo Sun, Handan Liu, Hongqing Sun and Guangyi Mu
Water 2025, 17(13), 2037; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17132037 - 7 Jul 2025
Viewed by 676
Abstract
Cresols are aromatic organic compounds widely used in industrial and agricultural production. They have been detected in large quantities in aquatic environments, posing health risks such as skin irritation, gastrointestinal stimulation, and chronic neurological effects. In this study, we investigated the exposure concentration [...] Read more.
Cresols are aromatic organic compounds widely used in industrial and agricultural production. They have been detected in large quantities in aquatic environments, posing health risks such as skin irritation, gastrointestinal stimulation, and chronic neurological effects. In this study, we investigated the exposure concentration of cresols in the water bodies of Lake Xingkai (i.e., Daxingkai and Xiaoxingkai Lakes) during four typical hydrological periods (30 April, 22 June, 5 September, and 1 November 2021), assessed the human health risk from phenolic contaminants using the mean value method, and determined the health risk of adult cresol exposure in the Lake Xingkai watershed based on local population exposure parameters. This study developed a water environmental pollution health risk assessment model based on the methodology proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). It further evaluated the health risks to humans posed by phenolic pollutants via the drinking water pathway. The results revealed that the concentration range of cresols in water bodies was between 5.91 × 10−1 ng·mL−1 and 6.68 ng·mL−1. The adult drinking water health risk values of cresols in the Lake Xingkai watershed were between 3.15 × 10−4 and 3.57 × 10−3, and all water samples from the 10 sites had hazard quotient (HQ) values less than 1, indicating that the non-carcinogen risk was small or negligible. The cresol HQ value in the water of Xiaoxingkai Lake was 4.6 times that found in Daxingkai Lake. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biogeochemical Processes in Lakes, Ponds and Reservoirs of Urban Environments)
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