GLNC: Georeferenced Lake Nutrient Chemistry for Western U.S. Mountain Lakes, 1964-2015

1964-2015 nitrogen and phosphorus water chemistry data for assessing atmospheric nutrient deposition effects on Western U.S. mountain lakes. The database contains 148,336 chemistry results from 51,048 samples across 3,602 lakes, compiled from public databases, government agencies, literature, and researchers. Jason Williams and S.G. Labou constructed this spatially-extensive database, which is transparent and reproducible with provided R code.

Use Cases

• Assess spatial patterns of lake nutrient chemistry based on georeferenced data.
• Analyze long-term trends in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations based on data spanning 1964-2015.
• Model atmospheric nutrient deposition effects on mountain lake ecosystems based on the database's stated purpose.
• Conduct regional water quality assessments for the Western U.S. based on data from 3,602 lakes.

Strengths

• Contains 148,336 chemistry results from 51,048 samples, providing substantial data volume.
• Covers a long temporal range from 1964 to 2015.
• Includes data from 3,602 lakes across the Western U.S., offering broad spatial coverage.
• Data formatting is transparent and reproducible, with R code and input files provided.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified beyond the March 2019 correction note.

Provenance

Source

Public databases, government agencies, scientific literature, and researchers.

Collection Method

Data were obtained from multiple sources and formatted into a consistent table structure.

Time Range

1964 to 2015

Freshness

A correction was applied in March 2019; the underlying data spans 1964-2015.

Geography

Lakes in the Western United States