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<p>The COVID-19 pandemic inadvertently offered a condition to evaluate how abrupt human-activity reductions affect freshwater ecosystems, particularly water turbidity. Using satellite-derived data from 774 lakes worldwide (2017–2022), here we show turbidity declined significantly in highly turbid zones of lakes following COVID-19 containment, with minor effects elsewhere. Globally, average peak turbidity decreased 7.0% in 2020 relative to 2019; 5.9% was directly attributable to containment measures, independent of climate. Without these measures, peak turbidity would have been ~5% higher (0.45 Nephelometric Turbidity Units) during 2020–2022. Lakes in regions with stricter containment and higher anthropogenic footprint exhibited larger declines and faster rebounds post-restriction. Among individual lakes, 75.2% experienced average peak turbidity reductions. For 168 lakes, containment-driven improvements averaged –18.6%, strongly correlated with reduced night-time light as a proxy for anthropogenic inputs. By disentangling human and climatic influences, our study provides globally relevant, actionable insights for targeted lake restoration strategies.</p>

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COVID-19 containment and control reduced lake turbidity around the world

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月26日

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  • Defeng Wu,
  • Wenfeng Liu,
  • David Makowski,
  • Ting Tang,
  • Esther E. Greenwood,
  • Yuanyuan Huang,
  • Philippe Ciais,
  • Haicheng Zhang,
  • Taisheng Du,
  • Xinghui Xia,
  • Daniel Odermatt

摘要

The COVID-19 pandemic inadvertently offered a condition to evaluate how abrupt human-activity reductions affect freshwater ecosystems, particularly water turbidity. Using satellite-derived data from 774 lakes worldwide (2017–2022), here we show turbidity declined significantly in highly turbid zones of lakes following COVID-19 containment, with minor effects elsewhere. Globally, average peak turbidity decreased 7.0% in 2020 relative to 2019; 5.9% was directly attributable to containment measures, independent of climate. Without these measures, peak turbidity would have been ~5% higher (0.45 Nephelometric Turbidity Units) during 2020–2022. Lakes in regions with stricter containment and higher anthropogenic footprint exhibited larger declines and faster rebounds post-restriction. Among individual lakes, 75.2% experienced average peak turbidity reductions. For 168 lakes, containment-driven improvements averaged –18.6%, strongly correlated with reduced night-time light as a proxy for anthropogenic inputs. By disentangling human and climatic influences, our study provides globally relevant, actionable insights for targeted lake restoration strategies.