Coupling nitrogen removal and watershed management to improve global lake water quality.

ABSTRACT: Lakes play a vital role in nitrogen (N) removal and water quality improvement, yet their efficiency varies due to differing watershed N input and lake characteristics, complicating management efforts. Here we established the N budget for 5768 global lakes using a remote sensing model. We found that watershed N input reduction and lake water quality improvement are nonlinearly related and depends on lake N removal efficiency. A 30% reduction in N loading in watersheds with high N removal efficiencies can improve cumulative water quality by over 70%. Stricter reduction could accelerate achieving water quality goal (≤1 mg N L^-1), shortening the time by up to 30 years for most lakes. However, heavily polluted lakes with low N removal efficiencies (50 of 534 lakes with >1 mg N L

SUBMITTER: Yan X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11880403 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature