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Nitrogen or phosphorus limitation in lakes and its impact on phytoplankton biomass and submerged macrophyte cover

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Abstract

We used data on nutrients, chlorophyll a (Chla) and submerged macrophyte cover from up to 817 Danish lakes to elucidate seasonal variations in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and to study the impact of N or its role in combination with P. In both deep and shallow lakes, we found marked seasonality in the ratio between total N and total P (TN:TP) and in the inorganic concentrations of nitrogen (DIN), indicating that N more easily becomes a limiting nutrient as summer proceeds. TN:TP reached its lowest values of <7 (by mass) in August in 25% of the shallow lakes. Chla generally related more strongly to TP than to TN, but at high TP concentrations TN explained more of the variability in Chla than TP. Macrophyte cover tended to decrease at increasing TN when TP was between 0.1 and 0.4 mg/l. At macrophyte cover above 20%, Chla was considerably lower compared with lakes with low macrophyte cover. We conclude that P is of key importance for the ecological quality of Danish lakes but that increased N concentrations, particularly in shallow lakes with moderate to high TP, may have significantly adverse effects on lake water quality and ecological status in summer.

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Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the EU project MARS (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme and by CLEAR (a Villum Kann Rasmussen Centre of Excellence project). The Danish regional environmental authorities are acknowledged for their careful lake monitoring and data collection. Anne Mette Poulsen and Tinna Christensen are acknowledged for editorial and layout assistance.

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Correspondence to Martin Søndergaard.

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Søndergaard, M., Lauridsen, T.L., Johansson, L.S. et al. Nitrogen or phosphorus limitation in lakes and its impact on phytoplankton biomass and submerged macrophyte cover. Hydrobiologia 795, 35–48 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3110-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3110-x

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