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Shows divergent trends in nutrient ratios in river systems, suggesting shifts in ecosystem health.
The ratios of dissolved carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in rivers constrain downstream carbon and nutrient cycling, yet their long-term trends remain unclear. Using a 20-year ML-modeled dataset spanning 5084 catchments, we show that 27% exhibited coupled C-N-P trends with increasing or decreasing patterns, while 73% exhibited divergent trends. These divergent trends resulted in global declines in DOC-to-nutrient ratios, possibly linked to river warming, anthropogenic land-use expansion, and forest cover declines.
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Mwanake et al. (2026) studied this question.
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