“…The hyporheic zone of Lake Taihu, particularly the nearshore part, is a substantial natural storage location for nutrients as well as a connecting path between lake water and the surrounding polluted shallow groundwater (Chen, Wo, Chen, & Fang, ; Rode, Hartwig, Wagenschein, Kebede, & Borchardt, ; Zhou et al, ). Hyporheic flow with large nutrient loads usually makes the hyporheic zone an active source or sink (Li, Wang, Zhang, Yuan, & Xu, ; Matisoff, Watson, Guo, Duewiger, & Steely, ; Stelzer, Bartsch, Richardson, & Strauss, ), while static sediments, particularly surface sediments, generally act as a passive source or sink, releasing nutrients into the overlying water after disturbance from external forces (e.g., wind currents) or via static diffusion (Rode et al, ; Wang et al, ).…”