Dataset: Predictions of Cyanobacteria and Microcystin in Lakes across the Conterminous United States
With increasing concerns about freshwater cyanobacteria blooms, there is a need to identify which waterbodies are at risk for developing these blooms, especially those that produce cyanotoxins. To address this concern, we developed spatial statistical models using the US National Lakes Assessment, a survey with over 3,000 spring and summer observations of cyanobacteria abundance and microcystin concentration in lakes across the conterminous US. We combined these observations with other nationally available data to model which lake and watershed factors best explain the presence of harmful cyanobacterial blooms. We then used these models to estimate the cyanobacteria abundance and probability of microcystin detection in 124,500 lakes across the CONUS. This dataset includes the compiled data used to generate the models and the dataset used to generate prediction for a much larger population of lakes. The data package include two tabular data files, two tabular metadata files, and one methods document.