Yao Lu

• Chinese Academy of Sciences

Inland water carbon (C) cycling processes determine C source-sink stability status. ■ Metabolic C processes drive carbon source-sink instability in inland waterbodies. ■ Insights into metabolic C processes are key to quantifying C budgets globally. BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Citation: Jia J., Dungait J., L...

Due to their complexity, inland water carbon (C) cycling processes significantly impact the C source-sink stability status of terrestrial ecosystems over short-term, long-term, and geological timescales. Stable C source-sink processes primarily include terrestrial biospheric production, lithospheric organic carbon (OC) oxidization, rock weathering,...

Studies have suggested that, globally, lake and reservoir systems constitute large carbon (C) sources. However, the drawdown zone where certain lake areas subject to water level fluctuations temporarily dry out, exposing sediment to the atmosphere, needs to be considered in lake-based C sink/source quantitative assessments. This study incorporates...

In recent decades, anthropogenically-driven climate change has affected phytoplankton growth and has widened the differences observed among the gross primary productivity of waterbodies (WGPP) in global lake systems. Results from this study showed that the range of WGPP increased over time (from 1950 to 2020). However, the median WGPP of global inl...

The strong hydrological characteristics and complex biochemical environment of floodplain lake systems make it difficult to obtain accurate, convincing results from sediment pigments used as paleoenvironmental indicators. Understanding pigment migration and preservation mechanisms under hydrological regulation will help explain past ecological chan...

Lake carbon (C) cycling is a key component of the global C cycle and associated C source and sink processes. The partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange flux at the lake-air interface (Fc) are controlled by complex physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms. It would be instructively significant to determine w...

Phytoplankton primary productivity from the surface to the euphotic depth (PPeu) is an important indicator for estimating the carbon (C) sequestration capacity of a lake system. Approximately 50% of China's lake systems are distributed throughout the Tibetan Plateau (TP), playing an important C neutrality role in China and beyond. Over the past 20...

In terrestrial ecosystems, carbon (C) transportation and C pool transformation processes both occur at the land-river-estuary continuum. Moreover, C budget and C balance processes are generally critical in achieving the C neutrality of terrestrial ecosystems. This study analyzes key C transportation processes at multiple interfaces that collectivel...

Phytoplankton contribute approximately 50% to the global photosynthetic carbon (C) fixation. However, our understanding of the corresponding C sequestration capacity and driving mechanisms associated with each individual phytoplankton taxonomic group is limited. Particularly in the hydrologically dynamic system with highly complex surface hydrologi...

Carbon (C) and silicon (Si) are essential lake ecosystem components, impacting both phytoplankton growth and other available elements and nutrients. In this study, we selected a typical floodplain-lake system to explore the seasonal role of coupled C and Si as matter is imported and exported through lotic water processes. Results showed considerabl...

Trace metal concentrations in lake systems may inhibit or promote phytoplankton growth and associated community structure factors, subsequently affecting their gross primary production (GPP). Accordingly, this study investigates trace metals and their associated effects on community structure in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) lake systems along with e...

Viruses act as “regulators” of the global carbon cycle because they impact the material cycles and energy flows of food webs and the microbial loop. The average contribution of viruses to the Earth ecosystem carbon cycle is 8.6‰, of which its contribution to marine ecosystems (1.4‰) is less than its contribution to terrestrial (6.7‰) and freshwater...

Regional processes on land-water-air interface carbon (C) budget and balance that interconnect the land and sea are in fact C neutrality critical processes within the earth system. It is therefore essential to quantitatively analyze synergistic land-water-air interface C transport and C exchange processes to gain a deep understanding of the importa...

Particulate organic carbon (POC) is an important component of lake organic carbon (C) pools, of which different factors drive vertical distributions and sources. This study used the dual stable isotope (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) approach to investigate vertical POC sources and drivers in a large floodplain lake system. Findings showed that POC composition gra...

On the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), salinity, area, and altitude are the three main environmental gradients, and they are also likely to be the main influencing factors of lake water and carbon (C) sources. We collected water samples from lake and river systems on the QTP to determine their associative physical, chemical, biological, and isotopic i...

Carbon (C) assimilation is primarily dominated by gross primary production (GPP), which is largely limited by nitrogen (N) availability in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Atmospheric N deposition alters the N availability in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and regulates C and water cycling processes, including water use efficiency (WUE). Thi...

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest and largest plateau in the world and is composed of the world’s greatest clustering of plateau lake systems. Given their extreme environmental conditions and simplistic trophic structures, certain phytoplankton species endemic to these lakes are extremely sensitive to changes in nutrients. Understanding the...

Being a fundamental property of aquatic systems, gross primary productivity (GPP) is affected by complex environmental factors, such as salinity, nutrients, pH, and sunlight. Under conditions of intensified anthropogenic activity and climate change, it is critical to understand the driving mechanisms of GPP in alpine lakes. In this study, we invest...

A floodplain lake system can be described as a water conveyance-type lake system that is subject to high water-level fluctuations (WLFs). This study investigated the effects of WLF on the nutrient status and the gross primary productivity (GPP) of phytoplankton in Lake Poyang, a large floodplain-lake system in China. This study hypothesized that WL...

After carbon (C) enters a lake through surface runoff and atmospheric deposition, most of it, being influenced by the environmental conditions of the basin, is deposited into lake sediment, thus, becoming one of the most important C pools in the world. Therefore, it is critical to understand sediment response characteristics under the context of in...

Most of the world’s lakes are fed through water conveyance, namely, lakes that continuously receive and discharge water. However, the complex hydrological processes of such lakes make it difficult to determine their specific biogeochemical carbon (C) cycles. Poyang Lake was selected for this study, whose capacity to receive and discharge through wa...

In the subtropics, the influence of water on the net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) is critical, subsequently determining net primary productivity (NPP). Water also contributes the majority of interannual variability in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the subtropics and helps to mitigate climate change. Using the technology of v...

In this study, we explore the relationship between changes in chlorophyll a (Chl a) content, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) characteristics from 1989 to 2018 in Poyang Lake, China, by applying Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper (TM/ETM) image data in combination with in situ monitoring data. Results showed that the aver...

Inland water carbon (C) sequestration rates play a potentially important role in the balance between C supplies from the atmosphere and associated watersheds and the net demand of primary producers. This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of influencing factors associated with inland water C cycling processes as well as their C sequestration p...

In this study, a cascaded watershed system in the Poyang Lake area was selected as the study site, which ranged from the primary tributaries to the lake area (Xiangxi River→Jiazhu River→Ganjiang River→Poyang Lake). The aims of the study were to monitor the P wet deposition and runoff process in the Poyang Lake area and discuss the P transport chara...

Bibliometrics was used to statistically analyze key zones within the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and national ministries over the past 20 years. This study determined that funds that derived from national ministries have mainly focused on issues related to environmental pollution, ecol...

The magnitude of mass flux is closely associated with biogeochemical watershed processes, which can generate a considerable amount of pertinent information. Moreover, both the accuracy and precision of mass flux estimation results directly affects the perception of the ecological environmental status, which in turn affects both the formulation and...

Understanding land-use change accompanied by anthropogenic activities under alterations in watershed size regulations or differential carbon (C) isotope characteristics remain a challenge in C cycling research. In this study, we investigate changes in the export of C composition and its isotopic characteristics at multiple scales in a subtropical c...

The management of river-lake systems is hindered by limitations in the applicability of existing models that describe the relationship between environmental factors and phytoplankton community characteristics but rarely include common and indirect effects on algae dynamics. In this study, we assumed that the interaction of light, water, temperature...

Silicon (Si) and carbon (C) can couple at different timescales. Phytolith carbon fixation and silicate weathering are two key processes of this type of coupling. Silicate rock weathering sequesters CO2 and thus generates a net C sink, which is one way that C is removed from ecosystems. This study selected the Xiangxi River watershed as the research...

The transport of trace metals in river-lake systems can potentially increase or decrease primary productivity in some basins and subsequently affect the carbon cycle of watersheds. In this study, we investigated a variety of trace metal concentrations and transport flux in the Poyang Lake basin during four seasons. Results show that the Gan River t...

In this study, a connected waterflow watershed system in the Poyang Lake area was selected as the study site, which ranged from the primary tributary to the lake area (Xiangxi River Jiazhu River Ganjiang River Poyang Lake). The aims of the study were to monitor different forms of C and N and evaluate the transport flux of C and N, and then, the tra...