Nutrient Thresholds Required to Control Eutrophication: Does It Work for Natural Alkaline Lakes?

Abstract

The responses of phytoplankton to nutrients vary for different natural bodies of water, which can finally affect the occurrence of phytoplankton bloom. However, the effect of high alkalinity characteristic on the nutrient thresholds of natural alkaline lake is rarely considered. Bioassay experiments were conducted to investigate the nutrient thresholds and the responses of phytoplankton growth to nutrients for the closed plateau Chenghai Lake, Southwest China, which has a high pH background of up to 9.66. The growth of the phytoplankton community was restricted by phosphorus without obvious correlation with the input of nitrogen sources. This can be explained by the nitrogen fixation function of cyanobacteria, which can meet their growth needs for nitrogen. In addition, nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) could be utilized more efficiently than ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) for the phytoplankton in Chenghai Lake. Interestingly, the eutrophication thresholds of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), NH4-N, and NO3-N should be targeted at below 0.05 mg/L, 0.30 mg/L, and 0.50 mg/L, respectively, which are higher than the usual standards for eutrophication. This can be explained by the inhibition effect of the high pH background on phytoplankton growth due to the damage to phytoplankton cells. Therefore, the prevention of phytoplankton blooms should be considered from not only the aspect of reducing nutrient input, especially phosphorus input, but also maintaining the high alkalinity characteristic in natural alkaline lake, which was formed due to the geological background of saline-alkali soil.