Riverine Phosphorus Gain and Loss Estimates Across the Conterminous United States

Catchment-scale estimates of riverine phosphorus net gain and loss across the conterminous United States. The dataset is based on compiled historical concentration data from the USGS and upstream-downstream catchment topology from the NHDPlus, spanning multiple decades. It was created by Yiming Wang and underlies a related manuscript on riverine phosphorus dynamics.

Use Cases

• Identify critical phosphorus source and sink areas at a regional scale based on catchment topology and concentration data.
• Conduct load-budget analysis for nutrient management using estimated phosphorus loads at USGS stations.
• Validate or calibrate watershed models with long-term, multi-decadal phosphorus gain and loss estimates.
• Support the development of effective phosphorus management practices across the CONUS.

Strengths

• Data spans multiple decades, with phosphate observations from 1952 to 2022 and total phosphorus from 1958 to 2023.
• Covers the entire conterminous United States (CONUS) at a catchment scale.
• Estimates are derived from compiled USGS concentration data and NHDPlus catchment topology.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the compiled historical observation periods.

Provenance

Source

Compiled from USGS concentration data and NHDPlus catchment topology.

Collection Method

Estimates derived from upstream-downstream catchment topology and historical concentration data.

Time Range

Phosphate data from 1952 to 2022; total phosphorus data from 1958 to 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 19:48:20; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Conterminous United States (CONUS).