Monitoring air quality can help for lakes excessive proliferation of phytoplankton control

Previous studies assessing excessive proliferation of phytoplankton (EPP) in lakes are generally based on single investigation and focused on limited environmental factors; meanwhile, less attention has been paid to lakes susceptibility to EPP. Here, we identify the priority of lakes for EPP control in a basin by assessing EPP in multiple lakes and identify the key factors related to lakes' vulnerability to EPP. Field measurements, as well as multi-source survey data acquisition were conducted for 63 shallow lakes in the middle-lower Yangtze River basin. Resource-use efficiency by phytoplankton (RUE) was then used to represent lake susceptibility to EPP. Generalized linear models were used to assess the relative importance of environmental factors for RUE. We found that most lakes (76.19 %) were not suitable for recreation, due to health concern attributed to irritative or allergenic risk caused by EPP. Phosphorus was the primary limiting nutrient for EPP (74.60 % of lakes) which should be limited to < 0.09 mg/L. The linear model that included latitude, particulate matter 10, and precipitation explained 27.60 % of the variation of RUE_TP among lakes. In contrast, the linear model that included ozone, Secchi depth, and wind speed explained 19.41 % of the variation of RUE_TN among lakes. The key factor related to RUE_TP and RUE_TN was particulate matter 10 and ozone, respectively, both of which potentially increase RUE or reflect it. Our results suggest that integrating multiple survey datasets is critical for lakes EPP assessment in a basin, while lakes impacted by air pollution are a high priority for EPP control.