Lakes around the world are sensitive to water quality degradation and eutrophication through increases in primary production. Understanding the drivers of primary production has been a fundamental question in limnology since its early days. Here, we conducted a systematic review to develop a dataset of water chemistry and lake morphometry for 3874 lakes distributed across 47 countries around the world to answer: (1) What is the global relationship between chlorophyll a (Chl a) and total phosphorus (TP) in lakes? (2) Are there inflection points at which the TP–Chl a relationship is no longer linear? and (3) What explains the inflection points and nonlinearities in the TP–Chl a relationship? We found that a sigmoidal relationship between TP and Chl a explained 44% of the variation. We also found physical characteristics of the lake mediated the TP–Chl a relationship such as mean depth, Secchi depth, and elevation. The nonlinear segments of this relationship best described lakes located in very cold (mean annual temperature = −10°C) and hot (> 25°C) climates, which also dominated the high and low ends of TP concentrations, respectively. A positive linear TP–Chl a relationship existed at intermediate concentrations of TP (0.004–0.23 mg L⁻¹). A high degree of variability in Chl a exists between lakes at similar TP levels, highlighting the difficulty in simply decreasing nutrient inputs to manage eutrophication in lakes worldwide. Moreover, as global temperatures continue to rise, the Chl a–TP relationship in lakes located in very cold or warm temperate regions of the world may shift in response to these warmer temperatures.

中文翻译：

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全球湖泊中总磷和叶绿素的关系

通过增加初级产量，世界各地的湖泊对水质退化和富营养化非常敏感。自早期以来，了解初级生产的驱动力一直是语言学的基本问题。在这里，我们进行了系统的综述，以开发分布于全球47个国家的3874个湖泊的水化学和湖泊形态数据集，以回答：（1）叶绿素a（Chl a）和总磷（TP）之间的全球关系是什么？）在湖泊中？（2）在其中TP-CHL有拐点一个关系不再是线性的？（3）是什么解释了TP–Chl a中的拐点和非线性关系？我们发现，TP和叶绿素之间的S形关系一个解释变异的44％。我们还发现湖泊的物理特征介导了TP-Chl的关系，例如平均深度，塞基深度和海拔。这种关系的非线性部分最能描述处于极冷（平均年温度= -10°C）和炎热（> 25°C）气候的湖泊，这两个湖泊分别占总磷浓度的高端和低端。TP的中间浓度（0.004-0.23 mg L ^-1）存在线性正TP-Chl a关系。Chla的高度可变性TP水平相似的湖泊之间存在着这种现象，这突显了简单地减少营养物投入以管理全球湖泊富营养化的困难。此外，随着全球温度继续升高，位于世界上非常寒冷或温暖的温带地区的湖泊中的Chla-TP关系可能会随着这些温暖的温度而变化。