Carbon and nitrogen burial in a plateau lake during eutrophication and phytoplankton blooms

Changchun Huang; Linlin Zhang; Yunmei Li; Chen Lin; Tao Huang; Mingli Zhang; A-Xing Zhu; Hao Yang; Xiaolei Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.320

Carbon and nitrogen burial in a plateau lake during eutrophication and phytoplankton blooms

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Mar:616-617:296-304. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.320. Epub 2017 Nov 6.

Authors

Changchun Huang¹, Linlin Zhang², Yunmei Li³, Chen Lin⁴, Tao Huang⁵, Mingli Zhang⁶, A-Xing Zhu⁷, Hao Yang⁸, Xiaolei Wang⁹

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China; Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment (Nanjing Normal University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: huangchangchun@njnu.edu.cn.
² Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China; Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment (Nanjing Normal University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment (Nanjing Normal University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, China; School of geography science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁵ Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; School of geography science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁶ Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁷ Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment (Nanjing Normal University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, China; Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
⁸ Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China; School of geography science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: yanghao@njnu.edu.cn.
⁹ School of Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, Nanjing Xiao Zhuang University, Nanjing 210046, China.

PMID: 29121578
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.320

Abstract

Organic carbon (OC) buried in lake sediment is an important component of the global carbon cycle. The impact of eutrophication on OC burial in lakes should be addressed due to worldwide lake eutrophication. Fourteen ²¹⁰Pb- and ¹³⁷Cs-dated sediment cores taken in Dianchi Lake (China) in August 2006 (seven cores) and July 2014 (seven cores) were analyzed to evaluate the response of the organic carbon accumulation rate (OCAR) to eutrophication and algal blooms over the past hundred years. The mean value of OCAR before eutrophication occurred in 1979, 16.62±7.53 (mean value±standard deviation), increased to 54.33±27.29gm^-2yr^-1 after eutrophication. It further increased to 61.98±28.94gm^-2yr^-1 after algal blooms occurred (1989). The accumulation rate of organic nitrogen (ONAR) is coupled with OCAR. The high loss rate of OC and organic nitrogen (ON) leads to a long-term burial efficiency of only 10% and 5% of OC and ON. However, this efficiency can still lead to an increase in OCAR by a factor of 4.55 during algal blooms in Dianchi Lake. Dianchi Lake stored 1.26±0.32 Tg carbon and 0.071±0.018 Tg nitrogen, including 0.94±0.23 Tg OC and 0.32±0.14 Tg inorganic carbon, 0.066±0.018 Tg ON, 0.002±0.001 Tg nitrate nitrogen (NO₃-N) and 0.003±0.001 Tg ammonium nitrogen (NH₄-N) between 1900 and 2012.

Keywords: Accumulation rate of OC and ON; Carbon cycling; Dianchi Lake; Mineralization of OC and ON; Sediment.

MeSH terms

Carbon / analysis*
China
Environmental Monitoring
Eutrophication*
Geologic Sediments / chemistry*
Lakes / chemistry*
Nitrogen / analysis*
Phosphorus
Phytoplankton*

Substances

Phosphorus
Carbon
Nitrogen