摘要
Lake Dianchi has undergone accelerated alternations resulting from human activities during the last 50 years, and provides an exceptional example for the study of regime shift in a shallow lake. Focusing on regime shift, we systematically studied and analysed alternations of key components of its ecosystem, including water parameters, phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass, macrophyte composition and fish populations. We found that the shifting course of Lake Dianchi went through three major phases, corresponding to three distinct states: Phase I clean, stable state during the 1950 s; Phase II transitional state during the 1970 s–1980 s; and phase III stable, turbid state since 1993. We analysed all data and samples, identifying the threshold concentrations at which regime shift occurred: total nitrogen(TN) and phosphorus(TP) reaching 1.2 mg/L and 0.13 mg/L, respectively. Results from this study strongly suggest that the increasing input of external nutrients, reclaiming land from the lake and foreign fish invasion were major inducements to the accelerated shift of Lake Dianchi to its turbid, stable state. These findings provide valuable guidelines for potential efforts to reverse this unnatural process in Lake Dianchi. The restoration may need to:(1) thoroughly and accurately identify pollution sources to control and reduce excessive external nutrients flowing into the lake;(2) return reclaimed land to the lake and recover the littoral zone to its natural state to facilitate increased restoration of macrophytes; and(3) strategically adjust fish populations by reducing benthivorous and filter-feeding fish populations that prey on zooplankton, while enlarging zooplankton populations to control phytoplankton biomass.
Lake Dianchi has undergone accelerated alternations resulting from human activities during the last 50 years, and provides an exceptional example for the study of regime shift in a shallow lake. Focusing on regime shift, we systematically studied and analysed alternations of key components of its ecosystem, including water parameters, phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass, macrophyte composition and fish populations. We found that the shifting course of Lake Dianchi went through three major phases, corresponding to three distinct states: Phase I clean, stable state during the 1950 s; Phase II transitional state during the 1970 s–1980 s; and phase III stable, turbid state since 1993. We analysed all data and samples, identifying the threshold concentrations at which regime shift occurred: total nitrogen(TN) and phosphorus(TP) reaching 1.2 mg/L and 0.13 mg/L, respectively. Results from this study strongly suggest that the increasing input of external nutrients, reclaiming land from the lake and foreign fish invasion were major inducements to the accelerated shift of Lake Dianchi to its turbid, stable state. These findings provide valuable guidelines for potential efforts to reverse this unnatural process in Lake Dianchi. The restoration may need to:(1) thoroughly and accurately identify pollution sources to control and reduce excessive external nutrients flowing into the lake;(2) return reclaimed land to the lake and recover the littoral zone to its natural state to facilitate increased restoration of macrophytes; and(3) strategically adjust fish populations by reducing benthivorous and filter-feeding fish populations that prey on zooplankton, while enlarging zooplankton populations to control phytoplankton biomass.
作者
王英才
王伟波
王智
李根保
刘永定
WANG Yingcai;WANG Weibo;WANG Zhi;LI Genbao;LIU Yongding(Yangtze Valley Water Environment Monitoring Center,Wuhan 430010,China;Institute of Hydrobiology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Wuhan 430072,China;Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology,Wuhan Botanical Garden,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Wuhan 430074,China;Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Wuhan 430077,China)
基金
Supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China(No.2011BAC12B01)
关键词
滇池
浮游植物
生态系统
生物学
regime shift
Lake Dianchi
eutrophication
altemative state
driving force
ecosystem