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Spatial and temporal variation in phosphorus budgets for 24 watersheds in the Lake Erie and Lake Michigan basins

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Abstract

We estimated net anthropogenic phosphorus inputs (NAPI) to 18 Lake Michigan (LM) and 6 Lake Erie (LE) watersheds for 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987, and 1992. NAPI quantifies all anthropogenic inputs of P (fertilizer use, atmospheric deposition, and detergents) as well as trade of P in food and feed, which can be a net input or output. Fertilizer was the dominant input overall, varying by three orders of magnitude among the 24 watersheds, but detergent was the largest input in the most urbanized watershed. NAPI increased in relation to area of disturbed land (R2 = 0.90) and decreased with forested and wetland area (R2 = 0.90). Export of P by rivers varied with NAPI, especially for the 18 watersheds of LM (R2 = 0.93), whereas the relationship was more variable among the six LE watersheds (R2 = 0.59). On average, rivers of the LE watersheds exported about 10% of NAPI, whereas LM watersheds exported 5% of estimated NAPI. A comparison of our results with others as well as nitrogen (N) budgets suggests that fractional export of P may vary regionally, as has been reported for N, and the proportion of P inputs exported by rivers appears lower than comparable findings with N.

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Abbreviations

LE:

Lake Erie

LM:

Lake Michigan

NANI:

Net anthropogenic nitrogen input

NAPI:

Net anthropogenic phosphorus input

NLCD:

National Land Cover Database

RMSE:

Root mean squared error

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dave Dolan for data and discussions regarding river P concentrations, Ashley Burtner for assistance with data management and Peter Richards and Donald Scavia for reviews of an earlier draft of the manuscript. This is contribution 09-007 of the Lake Erie Ecofore study funded by NOAA award NA07OAR432000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change, Korea Environment Institute, 290 Jinheungno, Eunpyeong-Gu, Seoul, 122-706, Korea

    Haejin Han

  2. Department of Science and Mathematics, Grace College, Winona Lake, IN, USA

    Nathan Bosch

  3. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Dana Building, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1041, USA

    J. David Allan

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Correspondence to Haejin Han.

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Han, H., Bosch, N. & Allan, J.D. Spatial and temporal variation in phosphorus budgets for 24 watersheds in the Lake Erie and Lake Michigan basins. Biogeochemistry 102, 45–58 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-010-9420-y

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