Researchers say their results show that lakes are able to get rid of excess nitrogen through a process of denitrification.
In a process that may help lakes maintain healthy levels of nutrients, new research from the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences shows that a majority of the lakes examined are continuously shedding nitrogen into the atmosphere. Nitrogen, along with phosphorus, is a nutrient that can be found in excess in some lakes. This excess can cause algal blooms that can overwhelm a lake and also produce toxins that can harm fish, local wildlife and people that use water from lakes.
In the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists set out to examine if lakes were gaining nitrogen from or losing nitrogen to the atmosphere. They examined the saturation of gaseous nitrogen in 34 lakes in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Researchers found approximately 86% of the 247 water column samples from lakes were supersaturated with gaseous nitrogen.
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