Polyphosphate phosphorus in the Great Lakes

Abstract Polyphosphate (polyP) is important to phytoplankton ecology, but a unified view of its variability and roles in ecosystem‐scale phosphorus (P) cycling is lacking. We study polyP in the world's largest freshwater ecosystem, the Laurentian Great Lakes, covering pelagic to nearshore areas across a wide nutrient gradient. We show that polyP (average 10.99 ± 3.90 nmol L −1 ) constitutes 3.8–30.2% (average 18.1 ± 7.2%) of total particulate P (TPP). PolyP accumulation is higher in low‐P pelagic waters compared with more productive nearshore areas. PolyP is preferentially degraded in the water column of the Great Lakes, enhancing P recycling and relieving the nitrogen (N) : P imbalance. Our data enables a coherent large‐scale freshwater‐to‐oceanic comparison. We show that while different plankton groups accumulate different levels of polyP with smaller plankton accumulating more, P availability is the key driver of polyP variability within and across systems.