Nitrogen deposition and lake nitrogen concentrations: a regional analysis of terrestrial controls and aquatic linkages

Loading of nutrients from terrestrial ecosystems strongly influences the productivity and biogeochemistry of aquatic ecosystems. Human activities can supplement and even dominate nutrient loading to many lakes, particularly in agricultural and urbanized settings. For lakes in more remote regions such as the Adirondack Mountains of New York, N deposition represents the primary potential anthropogenic nutrient source. We combined a spatial model of N deposition with data on lake‐N concentrations and spatial data on watershed configuration to identify the sources of watershed N loading for over 250 lakes in the Adirondacks. The analysis indicates that while wetlands are stronger sources of N loading per unit area than forests in the absence of inorganic N deposition, wetlands retain essentially all N deposition, while forests retained ∼87% of N deposition. Since forests cover close to 90% of the watersheds, upland forests are, on average, the single largest source of N loading to Adirondack lakes. Direct deposition of N to the lake surface accounted for as large a fraction of loading as that from wetlands in the watersheds. We found no evidence that presence of wetlands along flowpaths to lakes reduced loading from upland forests. Moreover, there was no evidence that net loading to lakes declined with increasing distance of a source area to the lake. Lake N‐concentrations thus primarily reflect N‐loading from forests in concert with loss rates determined by water residence time and within‐lake processes.