Riverine Phosphorus Gain and Loss across the conterminous United States

This dataset provides catchment-scale estimates of riverine phosphorus (both phosphate and total phosphorus) net gain and loss across the conterminous United States (CONUS), based on compiled historical concentration data from the USGS and upstream-downstream catchment topology from the NHDPlus. The compiled observations span multiple decades, with phosphate data from 1952 to 2022 and total phosphorus data from 1958 to 2023, and thus represent long-term, multi-decadal conditions rather than a specific time period. Results include estimates of phosphorus load at USGS stations and watershed gain or loss.The dataset can support water-quality assessments, identification of critical phosphorus source and sink areas at regional scale, load-budget analysis for nutrient management, validation or calibration of watershed models, and effective phosphorus management practices across the CONUS.Related resources: This dataset underlies the manuscript “Riverine phosphorus gain and loss across the conterminous United States,” including the description of methods and data.