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

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Listed:
  • Jeff C. Ho

    (Carnegie Institution for Science
    Stanford University)

  • Anna M. Michalak

    (Carnegie Institution for Science)

  • Nima Pahlevan

    (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
    Science Systems and Applications Inc)

Abstract

Freshwater blooms of phytoplankton affect public health and ecosystem services globally1,2. Harmful effects of such blooms occur when the intensity of a bloom is too high, or when toxin-producing phytoplankton species are present. Freshwater blooms result in economic losses of more than US$4 billion annually in the United States alone, primarily from harm to aquatic food production, recreation and tourism, and drinking-water supplies3. Studies that document bloom conditions in lakes have either focused only on individual or regional subsets of lakes4–6, or have been limited by a lack of long-term observations7–9. Here we use three decades of high-resolution Landsat 5 satellite imagery to investigate long-term trends in intense summertime near-surface phytoplankton blooms for 71 large lakes globally. We find that peak summertime bloom intensity has increased in most (68 per cent) of the lakes studied, revealing a global exacerbation of bloom conditions. Lakes that have experienced a significant (P

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff C. Ho & Anna M. Michalak & Nima Pahlevan, 2019. "Widespread global increase in intense lake phytoplankton blooms since the 1980s," Nature, Nature, vol. 574(7780), pages 667-670, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:574:y:2019:i:7780:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1648-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1648-7
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    1. Kevin C. Rose & Britta Bierwagen & Scott D. Bridgham & Daren M. Carlisle & Charles P. Hawkins & N. LeRoy Poff & Jordan S. Read & Jason R. Rohr & Jasmine E. Saros & Craig E. Williamson, 2023. "Indicators of the effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Enrique Cervantes-Astorga & Oscar Aguilar-Juárez & Danay Carrillo-Nieves & Misael Sebastián Gradilla-Hernández, 2021. "A GIS Methodology to Determine the Critical Regions for Mitigating Eutrophication in Large Territories: The Case of Jalisco, Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Ratté-Fortin, Claudie & Chokmani, Karem & El Alem, Anas & Laurion, Isabelle, 2022. "A regional model to predict the occurrence of natural events: Application to phytoplankton blooms in continental waterbodies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 473(C).
    4. Konstantinos Metaxoglou & Aaron Smith, 2022. "Nutrient Pollution and US Agriculture: Causal Effects, Integrated Assessment, and Implications of Climate Change," NBER Chapters, in: American Agriculture, Water Resources, and Climate Change, pages 297-341, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jian Zhou & Peter R. Leavitt & Kevin C. Rose & Xiwen Wang & Yibo Zhang & Kun Shi & Boqiang Qin, 2023. "Controls of thermal response of temperate lakes to atmospheric warming," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Jingtai Li & Yao Liu & Siying Xie & Min Li & Li Chen & Cuiling Wu & Dandan Yan & Zhaoqing Luan, 2022. "Landsat-Satellite-Based Analysis of Long-Term Temporal Spatial Dynamics of Cyanobacterial Blooms: A Case Study in Taihu Lake," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Charles A. Taylor & Geoffrey Heal, 2021. "Fertilizer and Algal Blooms: A Satellite Approach to Assessing Water Quality," NBER Chapters, in: Risks in Agricultural Supply Chains, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Mariano Bresciani & Claudia Giardino & Alice Fabbretto & Andrea Pellegrino & Salvatore Mangano & Gary Free & Monica Pinardi, 2022. "Application of New Hyperspectral Sensors in the Remote Sensing of Aquatic Ecosystem Health: Exploiting PRISMA and DESIS for Four Italian Lakes," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Bo Qin & Rong Wang & Xiangdong Yang & Qinghui Zhang & Jianan Zheng, 2023. "Reconstruction and Trends of Total Phosphorus in Shallow Lakes in Eastern China in The Past Century," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-15, July.
    10. Wu, Haihua & Liang, Cong & Zhang, Chaofan & Chang, Haixing & Zhang, Xianming & Zhang, Yuanbo & Zhong, Nianbing & Xu, Yunlan & Zhong, Dengjie & He, Xuefeng & Zhang, Lei & Ho, Shih-Hsin, 2022. "Mechanisms and enhancements on harmful algal blooms conversion to bioenergy mediated with dual-functional chitosan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    11. Ratté-Fortin, Claudie & Plante, Jean-François & Rousseau, Alain N. & Chokmani, Karem, 2023. "Parametric versus nonparametric machine learning modelling for conditional density estimation of natural events: Application to harmful algal blooms," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 482(C).
    12. Alexander E. Cagle & Alona Armstrong & Giles Exley & Steven M. Grodsky & Jordan Macknick & John Sherwin & Rebecca R. Hernandez, 2020. "The Land Sparing, Water Surface Use Efficiency, and Water Surface Transformation of Floating Photovoltaic Solar Energy Installations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-22, October.
    13. Moore, Michael R. & Doubek, Jonathan P. & Xu, Hui & Cardinale, Bradley J., 2020. "Hedonic Price Estimates of Lake Water Quality: Valued Attribute, Instrumental Variables, and Ecological-Economic Benefits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    14. Changchun Peng & Zhijun Xie & Xing Jin, 2024. "Using Ensemble Learning for Remote Sensing Inversion of Water Quality Parameters in Poyang Lake," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    15. Liao, Tiancai, 2022. "The impact of plankton body size on phytoplankton-zooplankton dynamics in the absence and presence of stochastic environmental fluctuation," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2023. "Technology Adoption, Agricultural Productivity, and Deforestation," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335506, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Yongguang Jiang & Peng Xiao & Gongliang Yu & Gaofei Song & Renhui Li, 2020. "Revealing Cryptic Changes of Cyanobacterial Community Structure in Two Eutrophic Lakes Using eDNA Sequencing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-14, September.
    18. Bai, Jing & Zhao, Jian & Zhang, Zhenyu & Tian, Ziqiang, 2022. "Assessment and a review of research on surface water quality modeling," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 466(C).
    19. Irina Gabriela Cara & Denis Țopa & Ioan Puiu & Gerard Jităreanu, 2022. "Biochar a Promising Strategy for Pesticide-Contaminated Soils," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, September.
    20. Ling Zheng & Yang Liu & Renhui Li & Yiming Yang & Yongguang Jiang, 2023. "Recent Advances in the Ecology of Bloom-Forming Raphidiopsis ( Cylindrospermopsis ) raciborskii : Expansion in China, Intraspecific Heterogeneity and Critical Factors for Invasion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-13, January.

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