Widespread global increase in intense lake phytoplankton blooms since the 1980s

Ho, Jeff C.; Michalak, A. M.; Pahlevan, Nima

doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1648-7

Cited by 895 publications

(417 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Outside the U.S., previously mentioned work by Lymberner et al (2016) [175] in Australian lakes and Hou et al (2017) [232] in the Yangtze basin both cover areas of tens of thousands of square kilometers, albeit without including every lake in the study region. At a global level, Ho et al (2019) [239] recently analyzed the prevalence of harmful algal blooms in 71 lakes over the span of three decades, further increasing the spatiotemporal domain of inland water remote sensing.…”

Section: Pub Year Study Duration Study Scale Study Categorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Trends in the Use of Remote Sensing for Inland Water Quality Science: Moving Towards Multidisciplinary Applications

Topp

Pavelsky

Jensen

et al. 2020

Water

203

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Remote sensing approaches to measuring inland water quality date back nearly 50 years to the beginning of the satellite era. Over this time span, hundreds of peer-reviewed publications have demonstrated promising remote sensing models to estimate biological, chemical, and physical properties of inland waterbodies. Until recently, most of these publications focused largely on algorithm development as opposed to implementation of those algorithms to address specific science questions. This slow evolution contrasts with terrestrial and oceanic remote sensing, where methods development in the 1970s led to publications focused on understanding spatially expansive, complex processes as early as the mid-1980s. This review explores the progression of inland water quality remote sensing from methodological development to scientific applications. We use bibliometric analysis to assess overall patterns in the field and subsequently examine 236 key papers to identify trends in research focus and scale. The results highlight an initial 30 year period where the majority of publications focused on model development and validation followed by a spike in publications, beginning in the early-2000s, applying remote sensing models to analyze spatiotemporal trends, drivers, and impacts of changing water quality on ecosystems and human populations. Recent and emerging resources, including improved data availability and enhanced processing platforms, are enabling researchers to address challenging science questions and model spatiotemporally explicit patterns in water quality. Examination of the literature shows that the past 10–15 years has brought about a focal shift within the field, where researchers are using improved computing resources, datasets, and operational remote sensing algorithms to better understand complex inland water systems. Future satellite missions promise to continue these improvements by providing observational continuity with spatial/spectral resolutions ideal for inland waters.

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Section: Pub Year Study Duration Study Scale Study Categorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Trends in the Use of Remote Sensing for Inland Water Quality Science: Moving Towards Multidisciplinary Applications

Topp

Pavelsky

Jensen

et al. 2020

Water

203

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“…Lake Varese is a monomictic and eutrophic shallow lake, with a mean depth of 11 m, a maximum depth of 26 m, a surface area of 14.8 km 2 , a volume of 153 × 106 m 3 , and a theoretical renewal time of 1.7-1.9 years [37,38]. Its catchment, with a surface area of 115.5 km 2 , hosts an average population density of 700 inhabitant/km 2 and is associated with many industrial and commercial activities. The lake has two tributaries: The Brabbia channel and the Tinella stream, with annual average discharges of 23 × 10 6 and 10 × 10 6 m 3 yr −1 , respectively, and one effluent, the Bardello stream, with annual average discharge of 80.4 × 10 6 m 3 yr −1 [30].…”

Section: Sites Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that occur naturally in fresh, brackish, marine waters, and terrestrial environments [1]. Cyanobacteria are a worldwide problem [2] for their ability to form massive blooms that can produce a wide range of harmful toxins [3]. Bloom events are likely to be promoted by eutrophication and climate change, and the number and intensity of these blooms increased globally over the last decades [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyanobacterial Blooms in Lake Varese: Analysis and Characterization over Ten Years of Observations

Chirico

António

Pozzoli

et al. 2020

Water

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Cyanobacteria blooms are a worldwide concern for water bodies and may be promoted by eutrophication and climate change. The prediction of cyanobacterial blooms and identification of the main triggering factors are of paramount importance for water management. In this study, we analyzed a comprehensive dataset including ten-years measurements collected at Lake Varese, an eutrophic lake in Northern Italy. Microscopic analysis of the water samples was performed to characterize the community distribution and dynamics along the years. We observed that cyanobacteria represented a significant fraction of the phytoplankton community, up to 60% as biovolume, and a shift in the phytoplankton community distribution towards cyanobacteria dominance onwards 2010 was detected. The relationships between cyanobacteria biovolume, nutrients, and environmental parameters were investigated through simple and multiple linear regressions. We found that 14-days average air temperature together with total phosphorus may only partly explain the cyanobacteria biovolume variance at Lake Varese. However, weather forecasts can be used to predict an algal outbreak two weeks in advance and, eventually, to adopt management actions. The prediction of cyanobacteria algal blooms remains challenging and more frequent samplings, combined with the microscopy analysis and the metagenomics technique, would allow a more conclusive analysis.

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“…We refer to this as structural or mean-driven ecosystem instability as it tends to restructure whole carbon pathways in ecosystem models, see Box. 2; (Huisman et al 2018;Ho et al 2019). This common field result suggests a second mechanism for ecological destabilization through 100 enrichment, broadening Rosenzweig's initial concept of the paradox of enrichment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 60%

“…This empirical result resonates with the abrupt loss of an equilibrium or equivalently a phase transition to a new diminished ecosystem equilibrium state discussed in the spatial nutrient-stability theory above (particularly model 2). 360 Harmful algal blooms and aquatic dead zones have been argued to be driven by nutrient run-off from agriculture and urban development, coupled to increased temperatures that further accelerate algal growth rates, suggesting that the rising tide of imbalance may be created synergistically by increasing nutrients and climate change (Diaz & Rosenberg 2008;Huisman et al 2018;Ho et al 2019). Yet climate change may do more than increase growth rates.…”

Section: Empirical Examples Of Nutrient-driven Ecosystem Imbalancementioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem Entanglement and the Propagation of Nutrient-Driven Instability

McCann

MacDougall

Bieg

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Almost 50 years ago, Michael Rosenzweig pointed out that nutrient addition can destabilize food webs, leading to loss of species and reduced ecosystem function through the paradox of enrichment. Around the same time, David Tilman demonstrated that increased nutrient loading 25 would also be expected to cause competitive exclusion leading to deleterious changes in food web diversity. While both concepts have greatly illuminated general diversity-stability theory, we currently lack a coherent framework to predict how nutrients influence food web stability across a landscape. This is a vitally important gap in our understanding, given mounting evidence of serious ecological disruption arising from anthropogenic displacement of resources and organisms. Here, 30 we combine contemporary theory on food webs and meta-ecosystems to show that nutrient additions are indeed expected to drive loss in stability and function in human-impacted regions. However, this loss in stability occurs not just from wild oscillations in population abundance, but more frequently from the complete loss of an equilibrium due to edible plant species being competitively excluded. In highly modified landscapes, spatial nutrient transport theory suggests 35 that such instabilities can be amplified over vast distances from the sites of nutrient addition. Consistent with this theoretical synthesis, the empirical frequency of these distant propagating ecosystem imbalances appears to be growing. This synthesis of theory and empirical data suggests that human modification of the Earth's ecological connectivity is "entangling" once distantly separated ecosystems, causing rapid, expansive, and costly nutrient-driven instabilities over vast 40 areas of the planet. The corollary to this spatial nutrient theory, though --akin to weak interaction theory from food web networks --is that slow spatial nutrient pathways can be potent stabilizers by moderating flows across a landscape.

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Widespread global increase in intense lake phytoplankton blooms since the 1980s

Cited by 895 publications

References 66 publications

Research Trends in the Use of Remote Sensing for Inland Water Quality Science: Moving Towards Multidisciplinary Applications

Research Trends in the Use of Remote Sensing for Inland Water Quality Science: Moving Towards Multidisciplinary Applications

Cyanobacterial Blooms in Lake Varese: Analysis and Characterization over Ten Years of Observations

Ecosystem Entanglement and the Propagation of Nutrient-Driven Instability

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