Global mapping reveals increase in lacustrine algal blooms over the past decade

Hou, Xiyan; Feng, Lian; Dai, Yanhui; Hu, Chuanmin; Gibson, Luke; Tang, Jing; Lee, Zhongping; Wang, Ying; Cai, Xiaobin; Liu, Junguo; Zheng, Yi; Chen, Kewei

doi:10.1038/s41561-021-00887-x

Cited by 307 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Remote sensing datasets for lakes are increasing (Dörnhöfer and Oppelt, 2016). Examples of already existing datasets are datasets for lake temperature (Sharma et al, 2015), ice phenology (Wang et al, 2021), and even biological indicators (Fang et al, 2022;Hou et al, 2022). A disadvantage is that remote sensing is limited to proxy values, which still require ground truthing by in situ monitoring data.…”

Section: Global-scale Calibration and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for ensemble modelling of climate change impacts on lakes worldwide: the ISIMIP Lake Sector

et al. 2022

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Abstract. Empirical evidence demonstrates that lakes and reservoirs are warming across the globe. Consequently, there is an increased need to project future changes in lake thermal structure and resulting changes in lake biogeochemistry in order to plan for the likely impacts. Previous studies of the impacts of climate change on lakes have often relied on a single model forced with limited scenario-driven projections of future climate for a relatively small number of lakes. As a result, our understanding of the effects of climate change on lakes is fragmentary, based on scattered studies using different data sources and modelling protocols, and mainly focused on individual lakes or lake regions. This has precluded identification of the main impacts of climate change on lakes at global and regional scales and has likely contributed to the lack of lake water quality considerations in policy-relevant documents, such as the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here, we describe a simulation protocol developed by the Lake Sector of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) for simulating climate change impacts on lakes using an ensemble of lake models and climate change scenarios for ISIMIP phases 2 and 3. The protocol prescribes lake simulations driven by climate forcing from gridded observations and different Earth system models under various representative greenhouse gas concentration pathways (RCPs), all consistently bias-corrected on a 0.5∘ × 0.5∘ global grid. In ISIMIP phase 2, 11 lake models were forced with these data to project the thermal structure of 62 well-studied lakes where data were available for calibration under historical conditions, and using uncalibrated models for 17 500 lakes defined for all global grid cells containing lakes. In ISIMIP phase 3, this approach was expanded to consider more lakes, more models, and more processes. The ISIMIP Lake Sector is the largest international effort to project future water temperature, thermal structure, and ice phenology of lakes at local and global scales and paves the way for future simulations of the impacts of climate change on water quality and biogeochemistry in lakes.

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Section: Global-scale Calibration and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for ensemble modelling of climate change impacts on lakes worldwide: the ISIMIP Lake Sector

et al. 2022

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“…A widespread increase in intense freshwater blooms of phytoplankton has been noted worldwide since the 1980s, with the summertime peak intensity increasing in most lakes. ,, Importantly, lake algal blooms exhibited a pronounced increase in the 2010s (except in Oceania) . Climate change affects HABs in various ways, and climate simulations suggest species-specific changes in the abundance of harmful algae in the next decades. ,,, However, the reasons for the global increase in intense blooms since the 1980s remain unclear .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, anthropogenic factors (e.g., fertilizer, gross domestic product, and population) may be stronger drivers of global algal bloom intensification than climatic factors (e.g., temperature, wind speed, pressure, and rainfall) . Stronger intensification of lake algal blooms occurs in Asia, South America, and Africa than in other regions, and is linked to the persistent reliance of developing countries on agricultural fertilizers. , However, these regions are also often hot spots of contamination, including pharmaceutical pollution, − a factor hitherto unaccounted for in the evaluations of potential HABs driving mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Levels of Contaminants Stimulate Harmful Algal Organisms and Enrich Their Toxins

Agathokleous

Peñuelas

Azevedo

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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A widespread increase in intense phytoplankton blooms has been noted in lakes worldwide since the 1980s, with the summertime peak intensity amplifying in most lakes. Such blooms cause annual economic losses of multibillion USD and present a major challenge, affecting 11 out of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Here, we evaluate recent scientific evidence for hormetic effects of emerging contaminants and regulated pollutants on Microcystis sp., the most notorious cyanobacteria forming harmful algal blooms and releasing phycotoxins in eutrophic freshwater systems. This new evidence leads to the conclusion that pollution is linked to algal bloom intensification. Concentrations of contaminants that are considerably smaller than the threshold for toxicity enhance the formation of harmful colonies, increase the production of phycotoxins and their release into the environment, and lower the efficacy of algaecides to control algal blooms. The low-dose enhancement of microcystins is attributed to the up-regulation of a protein controlling microcystin release (McyH) and various microcystin synthetases in tandem with the global nitrogen regulator Ycf28, nonribosomal peptide synthetases, and several ATP-binding cassette transport proteins. Given that colony formation and phycotoxin production and release are enhanced by contaminant concentrations smaller than the toxicological threshold and are widely occurring in the environment, the effect of contaminants on harmful algal blooms is more prevalent than previously thought. Climate change and nutrient enrichment, known mechanisms underpinning algal blooms, are thus joined by low-level pollutants as another causal mechanism.

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“…Although recent studies have used water color to identify trends in lakes and rivers (Gardner et al., 2021; Hou et al., 2022; Leech et al., 2018), factors that could influence these trends have not been directly identified. Studies of spatial and temporal patterns in inland water color at regional to continental scales hint at controls such as latitude, elevation, landscape, and lake morphometry (Gardner et al., 2021; Giardino et al., 2019; Lehmann et al., 2018; Topp, Pavelsky, Dugan, et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Color of Earth’s Lakes

Yang

O’Reilly

Gardner

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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Although water color is a fundamental property of freshwater ecosystems, the global distribution of lake color remains unknown. Here, we used 5.14 million color records derived from satellite images during 2013–2020 to determine the modal water color of 85,360 representative lakes worldwide. We find that globally, lake modal colors span the visible spectrum with a bimodal distribution of blue versus non‐blue (green‐brown), with 31% of lakes being blue and 69% being non‐blue. Both climate and lake morphology influence lake modal color. Blue lakes are associated with cooler summer air temperature, winter ice cover, and higher precipitation. Under a 3°C increase in summer air temperature, 14% of blue lakes could shift to a non‐blue regime, representing a substantial change to their underlying ecology. As lake ecosystems continue to face a range of stressors, this study provides a critical baseline for understanding lake responses to global environmental change.

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Global mapping reveals increase in lacustrine algal blooms over the past decade

Cited by 307 publications

References 65 publications

A framework for ensemble modelling of climate change impacts on lakes worldwide: the ISIMIP Lake Sector

A framework for ensemble modelling of climate change impacts on lakes worldwide: the ISIMIP Lake Sector

Low Levels of Contaminants Stimulate Harmful Algal Organisms and Enrich Their Toxins

The Color of Earth’s Lakes

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