Effects of Land Use on Lake Nutrients: The Importance of Scale, Hydrologic Connectivity, and Region.

ABSTRACT: Catchment land uses, particularly agriculture and urban uses, have long been recognized as major drivers of nutrient concentrations in surface waters. However, few simple models have been developed that relate the amount of catchment land use to downstream freshwater nutrients. Nor are existing models applicable to large numbers of freshwaters across broad spatial extents such as regions or continents. This research aims to increase model performance by exploring three factors that affect the relationship between land use and downstream nutrients in freshwater: the spatial extent for measuring land use, hydrologic connectivity, and the regional differences in both the amount of nutrients and effects of land use on them. We quantified the effects of these three factors that relate land use

SUBMITTER: Soranno PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4534397 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature