Effects of climate variability and land use/land cover change on the Daihai wetland of central Inner Mongolia over the past decades

The wetland ecosystem and its driving mechanism are significance impact on the ecological environment and the sustainable development of semi-arid regional economy.Agricultural and industrial land use/land cover change(LUCC) is also important for wetland system.The Daihai wetland(DW)in Inner Mongolia has been suffering from severe environmental problems such as water resource shortages and wetland areas decrease.We analyzed spatiotemporal LUCC at the catchment scale of Daihai Lake,which has recently exhibited a dramatic loss of water area,and investigated the potential role of climatic changes and human activities in the wetland loss.From 1976 to 2015,the arable land and construction land increased by 71.72 and 15.81 km2,with ranges of 18.72% and 39.61%,respectively.Meanwhile,the wetland area decreased by 84.47 km2,accounting for 29.07% of the area in1976.From 1960 to 2015,the area of Daihai Lake decreased by 100.73 km^2,diminishing to 37.09% of the area in 1960,and the lake storage accordingly shrank from 12.9×10~8 to approximately 3.9×10~8 m^3.The lake level also rapidly declined.From 1962 to2014,the lake water mineralization,total nitrogen(TN),and total phosphorus(TP) increased by 2410,7.86,and 0.182 mg L-1,respectively.The pollution sources included not only mineral fertilizers and pesticides,but also livestock,poultry breeding,aquaculture,and rural household waste.The lake area decreased with increasing agricultural development,Daihai power plant(DHPP) water consumption,and catchment climatic dryness.Thus,the urgent implementation of effective restoration and mitigation measures are needed.

Morphodynamic development of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake Depression,Central Mongolia:Implications for the relationships of Faulting,Volcanic Activity,and Lake Depression Formation

Data on the origin and morphology of lake depressions caused by volcanism are scarce in Mongolia.Previous studies focused on climate change patterns based on Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake sediment.We present a result of existing reconstructions of lake depression development and changes in the hydrology system during the Khorgo volcanic activation and the Holocene environmental change.A depression of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is formed by a lava flow barrier from the Khorgo volcano.However,the Khorgo volcanic eruption and the lake depression that could shape a large lake have arisen instead from a fault.The morphometric analysis and field measurements indicate that the derivation of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake depression and Khorgo volcano may have evolved from movement on a sinistral strike-slip fault,which is about 70 km long.The southern mountains and rivers were displaced from northwest to southeast along the Terkh Fault.The offset along Terkh Fault is 4.02-5.28 km in the depression of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake.After movement,a wide valley of the Terkh River developed in the present landscape.The active Khorgo Volcano formed along the Khorgo Fault.The Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is formed by blocked water from the PaleoTerkh River after lava damming from the Khorgo Volcano.The initial paleo-lake area was about 195.7km^(2),which was three times larger than the modern lake.The current water volume of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is 0.351 km^(3) while the volume of the paleo-lake was 2.248 km^(3).Based on this volume indicator the paleo-lake was 6.4 times larger than the current lake.Overflowing water from the lake depression formed the Suman River by a drying canyon through the lava plateau,but the canyon is along the Terkh Fault.Changes in the water volume of Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake and erosion of Suman River canyon are inversely related to each other.We present the morphometric relationships between the lava plateau of Khorgo Volcano and development of Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake depression.