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Preferential phosphorus retention in lakes alters the balance of global nutrient cycles

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Preferential P retention emerges in almost 90% of global lakes. This retention leads to a strong elevation in the N:P ratios in lakes outflow, exacerbates the imbalance of the nutrient cycles and can potentially result in biodiversity losses and algal blooms in lakes and downstream ecosystems.

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Fig. 1: Imbalance of nutrient retention in global lakes.

References

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This is a summary of: Wu, Z. et al. Imbalance of global nutrient cycles exacerbated by the greater retention of phosphorus over nitrogen in lakes. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00958-7 (2022).

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Preferential phosphorus retention in lakes alters the balance of global nutrient cycles. Nat. Geosci. 15, 434–435 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00962-x

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