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Long-term nutrient trends and harmful cyanobacterial bloom potential in hypertrophic Lake Taihu, China

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Abstract

Rapid economic development in China’s Lake Taihu basin during the past four decades has accelerated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loadings to the lake. This has caused a shift from mesotrophic to hypertrophic conditions, symptomized by harmful cyanobacterial blooms (CyanoHABs). The relationships between phytoplankton biomass as chlorophyll a (Chla) and nutrients as total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were analyzed using historical data from 1992 to 2012 to link the response of CyanoHAB potential to long-term nutrient changes. Over the twenty year study period, annual mean Chla showed significantly positive correlations with both annual mean TN and TP (P < 0.001), reflecting a strong phytoplankton biomass response to changes in nutrient inputs to the lake. However, phytoplankton biomass responded slowly to annual changes in TN after 2002. There was not a well-defined or significant relationship between spring TN and summertime Chla. The loss of a significant fraction of spring N loading due to denitrification likely weakened this relationship. Bioavailability of both N and P during the summer plays a key role in sustaining cyanobacterial blooms. The frequency of occurrence of bloom level Chla (>20 μg L−1) was compared to TN and TP to determine nutrient-bloom thresholds. A decline in bloom risk is expected if TN remains below 1.0 mg L−1 and TP below 0.08 mg L−1.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41573076), The International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2015DFG91980), Key Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-DQC008), and the U.S. National Science Foundation Grants ENG/CBET 0826819, 1230543 INSPIRE Program and DEB 1240851 Dimensions of Biodiversity Program. We thank the Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research (TLLER) for providing the water quality data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Hai Xu, Guangwei Zhu, Boqiang Qin & Mengyuan Zhu

  2. Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 3431 Arendell Street, Morehead City, NC, 28557, USA

    Hans W. Paerl & Nathan S. Hall

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  1. Hai Xu
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  2. Hans W. Paerl
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  3. Guangwei Zhu
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Correspondence to Guangwei Zhu.

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Xu, H., Paerl, H.W., Zhu, G. et al. Long-term nutrient trends and harmful cyanobacterial bloom potential in hypertrophic Lake Taihu, China. Hydrobiologia 787, 229–242 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2967-4

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