Sediments are important in regulating the algae-derived off-flavor (β-cyclocitral) in eutrophic lakes

Ren Ren; Deng Xuwei; Lu Wenze; Rao Xiao; Xie Ping; Chen Jun

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162536

Sediments are important in regulating the algae-derived off-flavor (β-cyclocitral) in eutrophic lakes

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jun 1:875:162536. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162536. Epub 2023 Mar 2.

Authors

Ren Ren¹, Deng Xuwei², Lu Wenze¹, Rao Xiao¹, Xie Ping³, Chen Jun¹

Affiliations

¹ Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China.
² Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China. Electronic address: dengxuwei@ihb.ac.cn.
³ Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China; Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China. Electronic address: xieping@ihb.ac.cn.

PMID: 36870503
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162536

Abstract

In recent years, due to global warming and water eutrophication, cyanobacterial blooms have occurred frequently worldwide, resulting in a series of water quality problems, among which the odor problem in lakes is one of the focuses of attention. In the late stage of the bloom, a large amount of algae accumulated on the surface sediment, which will be a great hidden danger to cause odor pollution in lakes. β-Cyclocitral is one of the typical algae-derived odor compounds that cause odor in lakes. In this study, an annual survey of 13 eutrophic lakes in the Taihu Lake basin was investigated to assess the effects of abiotic and biotic factors on β-cyclocitral in water. Our results showed that high concentrations of β-cyclocitral in the pore water (pore-β-cyclocitral) were detected in the sediment and far exceeded that in the water column, with an average of about 100.37 times. Structural equation modeling indicated that algal biomass and pore-β-cyclocitral can directly regulate the concentrations of β-cyclocitral in the water column, and total phosphorus (TP) and temperature (Temp) promoted the algal biomass which further enhanced the production of β-cyclocitral both in the water column and pore water. It was worth noting that when Chla ≥30 μg/L, the effects of algae on pore-β-cyclocitral were significantly enhanced, and pore-β-cyclocitral played a major role in the regulation of β-cyclocitral concentrations in water column. Overall, our study facilitated a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the effects of algae on odorants and the dynamic regulatory processes in complex aquatic ecosystems, and revealed a long-neglected process, that was, the important contribution of sediments to β-cyclocitral in the water column in eutrophic lakes, which would conduce to a more accurate understanding of the evolution of off flavors in lakes and also useful for the management of odors in lakes in the future.

Keywords: Chlorophyll a; Eutrophic lake; Sediment; Total phosphorus; β-Cyclocitral.

MeSH terms

China
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring
Eutrophication
Geologic Sediments / chemistry
Lakes* / chemistry
Phosphorus / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

beta-cyclocitral
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Phosphorus