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Spatiotemporal patterns and threshold of chlorophyll-a in Lake Taihu based on microcystins

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Abstract

Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) is considered as an indicator of phytoplankton biomass dynamically reflecting the growth of algae. Therefore, determination of Chl-a threshold is of vital importance to the health of aquatic ecosystems and drinking water security. This research is aimed to investigate the spatial and temporal distributions of Chl-a and microcystin (MC) concentrations using Geographic Information System (GIS) and identify the Chl-a threshold in Lake Taihu based on available guideline values of MCs. Nearly, the same characteristics of spatiotemporal variation of Chl-a and MCs were observed in Lake Taihu. Overall, the lakewide distributions of Chl-a and MCs were highly variable over time and space. The Chl-a concentration in the winter and spring was relatively low, and gradually increasing in summer and autumn, with the maximum concentration observed in August. But the maximum MCs concentration appeared in October, 2 months lagging behind the Chl-a. The highest annual average Chl-a and MCs concentrations were observed in Zhushan Bay, Meiliang Bay, and Gonghu Bay in northwest of Lake Taihu, following by West Zone and Center Zone. Dongtaihu Bay, East Zone, and South Zone always present good water quality. Referring to the guideline value of MCs, the Chl-a threshold was determined as 10–15 mg·m−3 based on the linear regression correlation between Chl-a and MCs. The establishment of Chl-a threshold is useful for eutrophication control, water quality management, and drinking water utilities in developing water safety plans.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51474033 and 41301636), and project from Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (No. D141100004514001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Xuemei Fu, Mingxia Zheng, Jing Su, Beidou Xi, Daichun Wei & Xiaoli Wang

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Xuemei Fu

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  1. Xuemei Fu
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Contributions

Xuemei Fu contributed to data acquisition, data curation, writing, and original draft preparation. Mingxia Zheng contributed to data acquisition, supervision. Jing Su contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript. Beidou Xi contributed to supervision and review. Daichun Wei contributed to methodology, reviewing, and editing. Xiaoli Wang contributed to data curation.

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Correspondence to Mingxia Zheng.

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Fu, X., Zheng, M., Su, J. et al. Spatiotemporal patterns and threshold of chlorophyll-a in Lake Taihu based on microcystins. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 49327–49338 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25737-8

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