Understanding and managing the susceptibility of lakes to anthropogenic eutrophication has been a primary goal of limnological research for decades. To achieve United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, scientists have attempted to understand why shallow lakes appear to be prone to eutrophication and resistant to restoration. A rich data base of 1151 lakes (each ≥ 0.5 km²) located within the Europe and the United States of America offers a rare opportunity to explore potential answers. Analysis of sites showed that lake depth integrated socio-ecological systems and reflected potential susceptibility to anthropogenic stressors, as well as lake productivity. In this study, lakes distributed in agricultural plain and densely populated lowland areas were generally shallow and subjected to intense human activities with high external nutrient inputs. In contrast, deep lakes frequently occurred in upland regions, dominated by natural landscapes with little anthropogenic nutrient input. Lake depth appeared to not only reflect external nutrient load to the lake, but also acted as an amplifier that increased shallow lake susceptibility to anthropogenic disturbance. Our findings suggest that shallow lakes are more susceptible to human forcing and their eutrophication may be not an occasional occurrence, and that societal expectations, policy goals, and management plans should reflect this observation.

几十年来，了解和管理湖泊对人为富营养化的敏感性一直是湖泊学研究的主要目标。为了实现联合国的可持续发展目标，科学家们试图了解为什么浅水湖泊似乎容易富营养化并难以恢复。1151个湖泊的丰富数据库（每个≥0.5 km ²) 位于欧洲和美国境内，为探索潜在答案提供了难得的机会。场地分析表明，湖泊深度整合了社会生态系统，反映了对人为压力源的潜在敏感性以及湖泊生产力。在这项研究中，分布在农业平原和人口稠密的低地地区的湖泊普遍较浅，受到人类活动的强烈影响，外部养分投入高。相比之下，深湖经常出现在高地地区，以自然景观为主，人为养分输入很少。湖泊深度似乎不仅反映了湖泊的外部养分负荷，而且还充当了增加浅层湖泊对人为干扰的敏感性的放大器。