Phosphorus accumulates faster than nitrogen globally in freshwater ecosystems under anthropogenic impacts

Yan, Zhengbing; Han, Wenxuan; Peñuelas, Josep; Sardans, Jordi; Elser, James J.; Du, Enzai; Reich, Peter B.; Fang, Jingyun

doi:10.1111/ele.12658

Cited by 137 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…Whereas studies of individual or few lakes suggest differences among lakes and regions, spatial patterns are difficult to build from local studies. In particular, our results and another recent paper (Yan et al 2016) demonstrate that N and P cycles are more likely to differ in areas with high human impact; hence, more mechanistic work on N and P cycling in regions with impacted vs. pristine watersheds may identify fundamental differences among regions. We show that key controls on stoichiometry and nutrients vary across study regions with different ecological context, and that the single vs. parallel nutrient response can differ across regions (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

“…Other recent broad-scale analyses supported the idea that anthropogenic activity might decouple N and P cycles, for example, P accumulates faster than N in lakes that are heavily impacted by humans (Yan et al 2016). This could explain our results from the Northeastern region, where we observed parallel nutrient responses for both nutrient loading and internal processing variables and could not explain variation in stoichiometry.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In addition to the effects of nutrient sources, strong relationships between lake depth and nutrients in nearly all analyses confirm that internal processing is a widespread and key control on nutrients and sometimes stoichiometry. Lake depth was often not included as a predictor of stoichiometry in previous studies , Elser et al 2010, Yan et al 2016 likely because depth data are less widely available than other variables that can be remotely sensed or are measured consistently across space. There are many possible mechanisms that link lake depth and nutrient concentrations (e.g., lake volume to sediment ratio, particle settling times), and one possible is that depth and residence time covary and nutrient removal for both N and P increases with residence time (Vollenweider 1975, Harrison et al 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The nutrient-loading concept (reviewed by Brett and Benjamin 2008) provides a framework for predicting single nutrients in lakes based on drivers that are organized into three categories: sources, transport, and in-lake processing of nutrients. More recently, N:P stoichiometry has also been related to drivers that are known to influence single nutrients, including N deposition (Elser et al 2009, Crowley et al 2012, agricultural land use (Arbuckle andDowning 2001, Vanni et al 2011), climate (Chen et al 2015), and the extent of human impact in a study region (Yan et al 2016). More recently, N:P stoichiometry has also been related to drivers that are known to influence single nutrients, including N deposition (Elser et al 2009, Crowley et al 2012, agricultural land use (Arbuckle andDowning 2001, Vanni et al 2011), climate (Chen et al 2015), and the extent of human impact in a study region (Yan et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lake nutrient stoichiometry is less predictable than nutrient concentrations at regional and sub‐continental scales

Collins

Oliver

Lapierre

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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Production in many ecosystems is co-limited by multiple elements. While a known suite of drivers associated with nutrient sources, nutrient transport, and internal processing controls concentrations of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) in lakes, much less is known about whether the drivers of single nutrient concentrations can also explain spatial or temporal variation in lake N:P stoichiometry. Predicting stoichiometry might be more complex than predicting concentrations of individual elements because some drivers have similar relationships with N and P, leading to a weak relationship with their ratio. Further, the dominant controls on elemental concentrations likely vary across regions, resulting in context dependent relationships between drivers, lake nutrients and their ratios. Here, we examine whether known drivers of N and P concentrations can explain variation in N:P stoichiometry, and whether explaining variation in stoichiometry differs across regions. We examined drivers of N:P in ~2,700 lakes at a sub-continental scale and two large regions nested within the sub-continental study area that have contrasting ecological context, including differences in the dominant type of land cover (agriculture vs. forest). At the sub-continental scale, lake nutrient concentrations were correlated with nutrient loading and lake internal processing, but stoichiometry was only weakly correlated to drivers of lake nutrients. At the regional scale, drivers that explained variation in nutrients and stoichiometry differed between regions. In the Midwestern U.S. region, dominated by agricultural land use, lake depth and the percentage of row crop agriculture were strong predictors of stoichiometry because only phosphorus was related to lake depth and only nitrogen was related to the percentage of row crop agriculture. In contrast, all drivers were related to N and P in similar ways in the Northeastern U.S. region, leading to weak relationships between drivers and stoichiometry. Our results suggest ecological context mediates controls on lake nutrients and stoichiometry. Predicting stoichiometry was generally more difficult than predicting nutrient concentrations, but human activity may decouple N and P, leading to better prediction of N:P stoichiometry in regions with high anthropogenic activity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Lake nutrient stoichiometry is less predictable than nutrient concentrations at regional and sub‐continental scales

Collins

Oliver

Lapierre

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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“…Nevertheless, a core issue remains: whether the N vs. P scaling exponent is invariably 'constant', or whether its numerical value depends on species functional groupings or other ecosystem properties. Numerous studies have also reported N vs. P scaling relationships with statistically significant variation in the scaling exponent [11,14,15,22,23]. For example, Niklas and Cobb [24] suggested that the scaling exponents of woody and herbaceous species are, on average two-thirds and three-quarters, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global leaf nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry and their scaling exponent

Tian

Yan

Niklas

et al. 2017

National Science Review

Self Cite

142

113

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Leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations constrain photosynthetic and metabolic processes, growth and the productivity of plants. Their stoichiometry and scaling relationships regulate the allocation of N and P from subcellular to organism, and even ecosystem levels, and are crucial to the modelling of plant growth and nutrient cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Prior work has revealed a general biogeographic pattern of leaf N and P stoichiometric relationships and shown that leaf N scales roughly as two-thirds the power of P. However, determining whether and how leaf N and P stoichiometries, especially their scaling exponents, change with functional groups and environmental conditions requires further verification. In this study, we compiled a global data set and documented the global leaf N and P concentrations and the N:P ratios by functional group, climate zone and continent. The global overall mean leaf N and P concentrations were 18.9 mg g −1 and 1.2 mg g −1 , respectively, with significantly higher concentrations in herbaceous than woody plants (21.72 mg g −1 vs. 18.22 mg g −1 for N; and 1.64 mg g −1 vs. 1.10 mg g −1 for P). Both leaf N and P showed higher concentrations at high latitudes than low latitudes. Among six continents, Europe had the highest N and P concentrations (20.79 and 1.54 mg g −1 ) and Oceania had the smallest values (10.01 and 0.46 mg g −1 ). These numerical values may be used as a basis for the comparison of other individual studies. Further, we found that the scaling exponent varied significantly across different functional groups, latitudinal zones, ecoregions and sites. The exponents of herbaceous and woody plants were 0.659 and 0.705, respectively, with significant latitudinal patterns decreasing from tropical to temperate to boreal zones. At sites with a sample size ≥10, the values fluctuated from 0.366 to 1.928, with an average of 0.841. Several factors including the intrinsic attributes of different life forms, P-related growth rates and relative nutrient availability of soils likely account for the inconstant exponents of leaf N vs. P scaling relationships.

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Recent Synchronous Declines in DIN:TP in Swedish Lakes

Isles

Creed

Bergström

2018

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Declining atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in northern Europe and parts of North America, coupled with ongoing changes in climate, has the potential to alter the nutrient limitation status of freshwater ecosystems. In this study we compared time series data of atmospheric N deposition, air temperature, and precipitation with corresponding estimates of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), total phosphorus (TP), DIN:TP, and total organic carbon from 78 headwater streams and 95 nutrient‐poor lakes in Sweden from 1998 to 2013 to assess trends in, and potential drivers of, lake N:P ratios. We found that trends in nutrients were variable at the scale of individual lakes but were highly synchronous at the regional scale, suggesting underlying control by broad‐scale environmental drivers mediated by site‐specific characteristics. Widespread declines in lake DIN throughout Sweden were correlated with declines in atmospheric N deposition, particularly in northern areas. TP did not have strong directional trends, but interannual variability was synchronous at regional scales, implying that broad‐scale climate drivers were affecting these trends. Overall, we observed a significant decline in DIN:TP throughout Sweden over the monitoring period. At the beginning of the study period, 32% of lakes were N limited and 45% colimited by N and P. Proportions increased to 63% of lakes N limited and 20% colimited by N and P at the end of the study period. These results suggest that N limitation is likely to become more widespread in subarctic and boreal areas of Europe in the future if recent trends continue.

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Phosphorus accumulates faster than nitrogen globally in freshwater ecosystems under anthropogenic impacts

Cited by 137 publications

References 61 publications

Lake nutrient stoichiometry is less predictable than nutrient concentrations at regional and sub‐continental scales

Lake nutrient stoichiometry is less predictable than nutrient concentrations at regional and sub‐continental scales

Global leaf nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry and their scaling exponent

Recent Synchronous Declines in DIN:TP in Swedish Lakes

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