Data on algae density and its influencing factors for major lakes in China

This is data on algae density and its influencing factors for major lakes in China. The dataset comprises algal cell density (AD), water quality parameters, and meteorological variables, spanning the period from June 2021 to June 2024. Water quality data were sourced from National Surface Water Quality Automatic Monitoring System of China, operated by the National Environmental Monitoring Centre. This real-time monitoring network provides high-frequency observations of key parameters, including water temperature (TEMP), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity (CON), permanganate index (PI), turbidity (TUR), ammonia nitrogen (NH), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and chlorophyll-a (Chla). The nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio (N-P) was also calculated. Meteorological data were obtained from NASA’s POWER project and included air temperature at 2 m (AT), precipitation (PRE), wind speed (WS), wind direction (WD), and all-sky downward shortwave radiation (SW). Water quality and meteorological variables were daily aligned to ensure consistency.