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The influence of nutrient loading, climate and water depth on nitrogen and phosphorus loss in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment

  • SHALLOW LAKES
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Abstract

Losses of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) have important influences on in-lake concentrations and nutrient loading to downstream ecosystems. We performed a series of mesocosm experiments along a latitudinal gradient from Sweden to Greece to investigate the factors influencing N and P loss under different climatic conditions. In six countries, a standardised mesocosm experiment with two water depths and two nutrient levels was conducted concurrently between May and November 2011. Our results showed external nutrient loading to be of key importance for N and P loss in all countries. Almost all dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) were lost or taken up in biomass in all mesocosms. We found no consistent effect of temperature on DIN and SRP loss but a significant, though weak, negative effect of temperature on total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) loss in the deeper mesocosms, probably related to higher organic N and P accumulation in the water in the warmer countries. In shallow mesocosms, a positive trend in TN and TP loss with increasing temperature was observed, most likely related to macrophyte growth.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by FP7/ENV-2009-1 under grant agreement 244121 (REFRESH project), the Middle East Technical University, METU-BAP programme of Turkey (BAP-07-02-2009), TÜBİTAK (Project no: 105Y332 and 110Y125), the MARS project (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change), Contract No.: 603378 (http://www.mars-project.eu) and the Danish projects CIRCE, CRES and CLEAR (a Villum Kann Rasmussen Centre of Excellence project). JC was supported by TÜBİTAK 2215 Scholarship Programme. We acknowledge Ms. Christiane Herzog (Department of Chemical Analytics and Biogeochemistry of IGB) and Kurt Pettersson (Erken laboratory) for meteorological data collection. We are thankful to Anne Mette Poulsen for proofreading the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jan Coppens or Meryem Beklioğlu.

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Guest editors: M. Beklioğlu, M. Meerhoff, T. A. Davidson, K. A. Ger, K. E. Havens & B. Moss / Shallow Lakes in a Fast Changing World

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Coppens, J., Hejzlar, J., Šorf, M. et al. The influence of nutrient loading, climate and water depth on nitrogen and phosphorus loss in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment. Hydrobiologia 778, 13–32 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2505-9

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