Figure 1
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Data sources:
Data was provided from National Environmental Monitoring System by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus under the ENI SEIS II East project activities
C11 –Nutrients in freshwater provided by National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus
Note: The data series are calculated as the average of annual mean concentrations of phosphate (mg P/l) (top) and nitrate (mg NO3-N/l) (bottom) for rivers and total phosphorus (mg P/l) for lakes in the whole of the Republic of Belarus (left) and in different river basins (right) for the period 1986-2017. The total number of rivers is 86. The total number of lakes is 74. The 2 lakes in the Western Bug river basin are not included in the aggregated time series for the whole country, because the time series starts in 2009.
An increase in nitrate and phosphate concentrations in rivers can cause eutrophication, giving an intensive growth of algae, including algae causing toxic conditions, and other aquatic vegetation, as nitrogen, and in particular phosphorus, is limiting their growth. This in turn can lead to oxygen depletion and reduced biodiversity in the bottom layers of rivers. Similarly, excess nitrogen and phosphorus can cause eutrophication in lakes.
The river phosphate concentration time series indicate that except the Western Dvina river basin, the maximum levels occurred during the period 1988-1990. There was also an increase towards 2003-2004. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the concentrations in the Western Dvina and Neman river basins, and a decrease in the Western Bug and Dnieper river basins.
Over the time period 1986-2017 there was an increase in average annual river nitrate concentrations, both for individual river basins and the country as a whole. The concentration pattern differed between the different river basins, but except in the Western Dvina river basin there was a general increase in the period 2005-2007. In the Pripyat river basin the increase was a marked peak before returning to around the same level, while in the Neman, Dnieper and Western Bug river basins the concentration level has remained higher than before 2005. In Western Dvina the nitrate concentration has been higher since 2012.
For lake total phosphorus the average concentration was usually highest during the periods 1988-1995 and 2003-2007. The highest concentrations have been observed in the Pripyat river basin. Over the past decade, the average concentration decreased in all river basins.