Present status and changes of the phytoplankton community after invasion of Neosalanx taihuensis since 1982 in a deep oligotrophic plateau lake, Lake Fuxian in the subtropical China

Phytoplankton assemblages in the subtrophical oligotrophic Lake Fuxian, the second deepest lake in China, were investigated monthly from September 2002 to August 2003. A total of 113 species belonging to seven phyla were identified, among them, a filamentous green alga, Mougeotia sp., dominated almost throughout the study period and comprised most of the total phytoplankton biomass. Mougeotia sp. has made a substantial development during the past decades: it was absent in 1957, only occasionally present in 1983, increased substantially in 1993, and became predominant in 2002—2003. It is likely that natural invasion of the Taihu Lake noodlefish(Neosalanx taihuensis) has led to a change of dominant herbivorous zooplankton from small to large calanoid, which has increased grazing pressure on small edible algae, and thus has indirectly favored the development of the inedible filamentous Mougeotia sp.

Ecology of macrozoobenthic communities in two plateau lakes of Southwest China

Ecological studies on macrozoobenthos were conducted in two small plateau lakes in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Southwest China： Xingyun Lake （XL）, a eutrophic lake whose main source of primary production was phytoplankton （Chl α=99.76±24.01 μg/L）, and Yangzong Lake （YL）, a mesotrophic lake. Sampling was carried out from October 2002 to May 2004. Altogether 23 benthic taxa were identified in XL and 21 taxa in YL. The density of benthos in XL was much lower than that in YL, but the biomass was about equal in the two lakes, being I 423 ind/m^2 and 8.71 g/m^2 in XL and 4 249 ind/m^2 and 8.60 g/m^2 in YL. The dominant species were Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, Branchiura sowerbyi, Aulodrilus pluriseta and Chironomus sp. in XL and Limnodrilus hoffrneisteri, Aulodrilus pluriseta and Bellamya sp. in YL. Seasonal fluctuation occurred, showing richer species in summer and winter, but the density and biomass varied in different ways in the two lakes. Analyses on functional feeding groups indicate that collector-gatherers were predominant, but the relative abundances of other groups were different. Stepwise multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the water depth, conductivity and chlorophyll a were the key factors affecting macrozoobenthic abundance in the lakes.

Succession of nine plateau lakes and regulation of ecological safety in Yunnan Province

The Nine plateau lakes are those lakes whose areas are larger than 30km2 in Yunnan province.These lakes are Dianchi Lake,Erhai Lake,Fuxian Lake,Chenghai Lake,Lugu Lake,Qilu Lake,Xingyun Lake,Yangzonghai Lake,and Yilong Lake.The nine plateau lakes are important for economic development and for ecological security.However,all lakes are facing different environmental issues such as eutrophication and water quality degradation.Different strategies should be proposed according to the various conditions of the lakes.Three types of prevention,control and treatment strategies were proposed based on the succession process,the ecology stages,the economic and social development,the eutrophication stages,the water qualities,and the dominant ecological functions.

Spatial Distribution of Natural Villages Surrounding Plateau Lakes: A Case Study of the Yilong Lake in Yunnan

The study of the spatial distribution of natural villages is what local studies, cultural studies, urban and rural planning, and tourism planning need. In the context of gradually extinct natural villages, research on the characteristics analysis and protection of natural villages is of great significance. With the aid of the Arc GIS spatial analysis technology, it was concluded that terrain, traffic, and social economy were important factors influencing the distribution of the natural villages in the study area, so as to provide a technical reference for relevant local administrative departments to construct a livable ecological environment.

Ecology of macrozoobenthic communities in two plateau lakes of Southwest China

The original version of this article contains a mistake in font setting on p.350. The last part of Table 3 note, i.e. 'biomass…molluscs (Liang et al., 1995)' should belong to the paper body. Therefore, the last sentence

Optical measurements of dissolved organic matter as proxies for COD_(Mn)and BOD_(5)in plateau lakes

The presence of organic matter in lakes profoundly impacts drinking water supplies,yet treatment processes involving coagulants and disinfectants can yield carcinogenic disinfection by-products.Traditional assessments of organic matter,such as chemical oxygen demand(COD_(Mn))and biochemical oxygen demand(BOD_(5)),are often time-consuming.Alternatively,optical measurements of dissolved organic matter(DOM)offer a rapid and reliable means of obtaining organic matter composition data.Here we employed DOM optical measurements in conjunction with parallel factor analysis to scrutinize COD_(Mn)and BOD_(5)variability.Validation was performed using an independent dataset encompassing six lakes on the Yungui Plateau from 2014 to 2016(n=256).Leveraging multiple linear regressions(MLRs)applied to DOM absorbance at 254 nm(a254)and fluorescence components C1-C5,we successfully traced COD_(Mn)and BOD_(5)variations across the entire plateau(68 lakes,n=271,R^(2)>0.8,P<0.0001).Notably,DOM optical indices yielded superior estimates(higher R^(2))of COD_(Mn)and BOD_(5)during the rainy season compared to the dry season and demonstrated increased accuracy(R^(2)>0.9)in mesotrophic lakes compared to oligotrophic and eutrophic lakes.This study underscores the utility of MLR-based DOM indices for inferring COD_(Mn)and BOD_(5)variability in plateau lakes and highlights the potential of integrating in situ and remote sensing platforms for water pollution early warning.

Characteristics of the Distribution of Plant Community in Lakeshore Wetland of Yunnan Plateau

[ Objective] The aim was to discuss the distribution of plant community in lakeshore wetland of Yunnan Plateau. [ Method ] Taking sever- al lakes in Yunnan Plateau as example, the distribution characteristics and rules of plant community in lakeshore wetland of Yunnan Plateau were discussed. The degradation and causes of lakeshore wetland were analyzed. [ Resultl The wetland plants were characterized by reduction of the aquatic plant species, the decline of the species diversity and the biomass. Fast breeding vegetation with high fat and pollution tolerance, strong adaptability was easy to form a single optimal community. Some representative and sensitive to pollution plants deteriorated or destroyed. These phenomena reflected the changes of water quality, the worse pollution, eutrophication and the acceleration of turning wetland to land. The causes of wetland degradation and biodiversity included increase of population pressure, industrial and agricultural development, advance of urbanization, unreasonable cultivation, over-exploitation and eutrophication, etc. [ Conclusion] The study provided theoretical basis for the protection, environ- ment evaluation and sustainable development of lakeshore wetland.

MSCANet: multiscale context information aggregation network for Tibetan Plateau lake extraction from remote sensing images

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau lakes are important carriers of water resources in the‘Asian’s Water Tower’,and it is of great significance to grasp the spatial distribution of plateau lakes for the climate,ecological environment,and regional water cycle.However,the differences in spatial-spectral characteristics of various types of plateau lakes,and the complex background information of plateau both influence the extraction effect of lakes.Therefore,it is a great challenge to completely and effectively extract plateau lakes.In this study,we proposed a multiscale contextual information aggregation network,termed MSCANet,to automatically extract Plateau lake regions.It consists of three main components:a multiscale lake feature encoder,a feature decoder,and a Multicore Pyramid Pooling Module(MPPM).The multiscale lake feature encoder suppressed noise interference to capture multiscale spatial-spectral information from heterogeneous scenes.The MPPM module aggregated the contextual information of various lakes globally.We applied the MSCANet to the lake extraction of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on Google data;additionally,comparative experiments showed that the MSCANet proposed had obvious improvement in lake detection accuracy and morphological integrity.Finally,we transferred the pre-trained optimal model to the Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A dataset to verify the generalization of the MSCANet.

Hydrochemical Dynamic Characteristics and Evolution of Underground Brine in the Mahai Salt Lake of the Qaidam Basin Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The mineral rock salts present in the Mahai Salt Lake of the Qaidam basin exhibit high solubilities in water. In addition, the multicomponent underground brine exhibits a high salinity and is easily precipitated. In the natural state, brine transport in the brine layer is extremely slow, and the brine is in a relatively stable chemical equilibrium state with the rock salt media. However, during mining, both the seepage and the chemical fields fluctuate significantly, thereby disrupting the equilibrium and leading to variations in the chemical composition and dynamic characteristics of the brine. Therefore, we selected underground brine from the Mahai Salt Lake, collecting a total of 183 brine samples over three stages of mining（i.e., the early stage of underground brine extraction, the initial stage of mining, and the later stage of mining）. Using a range of analytical techniques, the chemical dynamics of the underground brine water and its evolution were systematically studied. We found that evaporation and enrichment were the main mechanisms of underground brine evolution in the Mahai Salt Lake, with cation exchange and mineral dissolution/precipitation being key factors in determining the dynamic characteristics and evolution of the brine.

“Greatest lake period” and its palaeo-environment on the Tibetan Plateau

The “greatest lake period” means that the lakes are in the stage of their maximum areas. As the paleo lake shorelines are widely distributed in the lake basins on the Tibetan Plateau, the lake areas during the “greatest lake period” may be inferred by the last highest lake shorelines. They are several, even tens times larger than that at present. According to the analyses of tens of lakes on the Plateau, most dating data fell into the range of 40-25 ka BP, some lasted to 20 ka BP. It was corresponded to the stage 3 of marine isotope and interstitial of last glaciation. The occurrence of maximum areas of lakes marked the very humid period on the Plateau and was also related to the stronger summer monsoon during that period.

The response of lake-glacier variations to climate change in Nam Co Catchment, central Tibetan Plateau, during 1970-2000

Based upon the 1970 aero-photo topographic map, and TM/ETM satellite images taken in 1991 and 2000, the authors artificially interpreted boundaries of lake and glaciers in Nam Co Catchment, and quantified lake-glacier area variations in different stages by ＂integrated method＂ with the support of GIS. Results show that from 1970 to 2000, lake area increased from 1942.34 km^2 to 1979.79 km^2 at a rate of 1.27 km^2/a, while glacier area decreased from 167.62 km^2 to 141.88 km^2 at a rate of 0.86 km^2/a. The increasing rate of lake in 1991-2000 was 1.76 km^2/a that was faster than 1.03 km^2/a in 1970-1991, while in the same period of time, the shrinking rates of glaciers were 0.97 km^2/a and 0.80 km^2/a respectively. Important factors, relevant to lake and glacier response to the climate, such as air temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and their values in warm and cold seasons, were discussed. The result suggests that temperature increasing is the main reason for the accelerated melting of glaciers. Lake expansion is mainly induced by the increase of the glacier melting water, increase of precipitation and obvious decrease of potential evapotranspiration. Precipitation, evaporation and their linkages with lake enlargement on regional scale need to be thoroughly studied under the background of global warming and glacier retreating.

Thermal Stratification in Lake Zige Tangco, Central Tibetan Plateau

Lake Zige Tangco is an endorheic saline lake in central Tibetan Plateau.Investigations of 1998 and 1999 revealed that is was a typical stratified lake. The characteristicsof thermal stratification of the lake have been extensively discussed from 4 aspects, i. e.thermocline, hydrochemistry and dissolved oxygen, stable isotope oxygen, and stability. Thethermocline coupled with chemocline was further analyzed.

The response of lake change to climate fluctuation in north Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in last 30 years

According to the analysis of the climate materials including the topographic map in 1975, the TM and CBERS satellite remote sensing materials from the 1980s to 2005 as well as the air temperature, precipitation, evaporation rate, maximum depth of snow and the biggest depth of frozen soil in the past 45 years, the water level area of four lakes at the southeast of Nagqu, Tibet including Barn Co, Pung Co, Dung Co and Nuripung Co show a distinct trend of expansion in the past 30 years. In 2005, the water level area of the above four lakes increased by 48.2 km^2, 38.2 km^2, 19.8 km^2 and 26.0 km^2 respectively compared to 1975, with the respective increase rate of 25.6%, 28.2%, 16.2% and 37.6%. That is closely related to the warming and humidified climate change in the recent years such as rise of the air temperature increase of the precipitation, decrease of the evaporation rate and permafrost degradation.

Evidence of the Pan-Lake Stage in the Period of 40-28 ka B.P. on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet plateau is one of major saline lake regions in China, where saline lakes are widespread and constitute an important object of researches on the palaeoclimatic change in the region. On the basis of comprehensive investigations of the evolution of the lake's surface and sediments on the plateau, the authors have further demonstrated the existence of a pan-lake stage (river and lake flooding stage) on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau during the period of about 40+-28 ka B.P. and analyzed the palaeoclimatic characteristics of the pan-lake period and relationships between the ancient monsoons and the uplift of the plateau since the beginning of the Quaternary.

The Quaternary Pan-lake (Overflow) Period and Paleoclimate on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Lake geomorphology and high-level lacustrine deposits since the mid-late Pleistocene are well preserved in lakes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. According to geological surveys of 17 lake districts in different locations of the plateau, combined with interpretations of satellite images and topographic maps, the authors studied the timing of formation and scopes of the pan-lake areas of the plateau and their paleoclimate. The latest two high lake levels （overflow surfaces） on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the Quaternary occurred at N40 to 30/35 ka and N65 to 53 ka respectively. In these time intervals, the plateau was covered by huge interconnected pan-lake systems with a total area of -36 km^2 and a total volume of lake water of 〉530 million km^2, which are about 38 times and 659 times larger than those of the modern lakes respectively. Before this pan-lake period in the late Pleistocene, there had been three high lake levels that occurred at N 132-112 ka, 110-95 ka and 91-72/-83-75 ka respectively, suggesting that the late Quaternary climate on the plateau was unstable and changed rapidly. The -40-30 ka high lake level also appeared in the Tengger desert north of the plateau, suggesting that there existed very strong summer monsoons from South Asia then; the variation in solar radiation with a 20,000 precessional period has special importance for the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the low-latitude zone of the Earth. Around 30 ka, the pan-lakes at the peripheries of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau drained out suddenly with rapid uplift of the plateau and cooling. In a short time the huge amount of cold lake water emptied into the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific. The draining event of the pan-lakes brought about the environmental changes of rivers and lakes at peripheries of the plateau.

Glacier extent changes and possible causes in the Hala Lake Basin of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Glacier is a common sensitivity indicator of environmental and global climate change.Examining the relationship between glacier area and climate change will help reveal glacier change mechanisms and future trends.Glacier changes are also of great significance to the regulation of regional water resources.This study selected the Hala Lake Basin in the northeastern Qinhai-Tibet Plateau as a study area,and examined the relationships between the temporal and spatial change of glaciers in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and climate change based on remote sensing imagery,climatological data,and topographic data during the past 30 years.Results showed that glacier area in the Hala Lake basin fluctuated and decreased from106.24 km2 in 1986 to 78.84 km2 in 2015,with a decreasing rate of 0.94 km2·yr-1.The number of glacier patches,mean patch area,and largest patch index all decreased from 1986 to 2015,while the splitting index increased from 1986 to 2015,indicating that the landscape fragmentation of glacier in the Hala Lake Basin was increasing significantly during the study period.Glacier area change was mainly concentrated in the slopes>25°with an altitude of 4500-5000 m,and the retreating rate of glacier of sunny slope was obviously higher than that of shady slope.Geometric center of glacier in the basin moved from southwest to northeast towards high altitude.Results of the response of glacier extent to climate change showed that temperature was the dominant factor affecting glacier area dynamic change in the Hala Lake Basin.It is predicted that in future several years,the glacier area will decrease and fragment continually as a result of global warming on the Tibetan Plateau.

Numerical simulation of the climate effect of high-altitude lakes on the Tibetan Plateau

Lakes regulate the water and heat exchange between the ground and the atmosphere on different temporal and spatial scales. However, studies of the lake effect in the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau(TP) rarely have been performed until recently, and little attention has been paid to modelling of frozen lakes. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model(WRF v. 3.6.1) is employed to conduct three numerical experiments in the Ngoring Lake Basin(the original experiment, an experiment with a tuned model, and a no-lake experiment) to investigate the influences of parameter optimization on the lake simulation and of the high-altitude lake on the regional climate. After the lake depth, the roughness lengths, and initial surface temperature are corrected in the model, the simulation of the air temperature is distinctly improved. In the experiment using a tuned model, the simulated sensible-heat flux(H) is clearly improved, especially during periods of ice melting(from late spring to early summer) and freezing(late fall). The improvement of latent-heat flux(LE) is mainly manifested by the sharp increase in the correlation coefficient between simulation and observation, whereas the improvement in the average value is small. The optimization of initial surface temperature shows the most prominent effect in the first year and distinctly weakens after a freezing period. After the lakes become grassland in the model, the daytime temperature clearly increases during the freezing and melting periods; but the nocturnal cooling appears in other stages, especially from September to October. The annual mean H increases by 6.4 times in the regions of the Ngoring Lake and the Gyaring Lake, and the LE declines by 56.2%. The sum of H and LE increases from 71.2 W/m2(with lake) to 84.6 W/m2(no lake). For the entire simulation region, the sum of H and LE also increases slightly. After the lakes are removed, the air temperature increases significantly from June to September over the area corresponding to the two lakes, and an abnormal convergence field appears; at the same time, the precipitation clearly increases over the two lakes and surrounding areas.

Climatic Signals in the Last 200 Years from Stable Isotope Record in the Shells of Freshwater Snails in Lake Xingcuo, Eastern Tibet Plateau, China

Lake Xingcuo is a small closed, hard\|water lake, situated on eastern Tibet Plateau. Stable isotope data (\{δ\{\}\+\{18\}O\} and \{δ\{\}\+\{13\}C\}) from the freshwater snail Gyraulus sibirica (Dunker) in a 34 cm long, radioactive isotope\|dated sediment core represent the last 200 years of Lake Xingcuo environmental history. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios in the shells of the freshwater snail bear information on the isotopic composition of the water in which the shells were formed, which in turn characterizes the climatic conditions prevailing during the snail’s life span. Whole\|shell and incremental growth data were collected from modern and fossil shells from Lake Xingcuo. The \{δ\{\}\+\{18\}O\} values of modern shells from Lake Xingcuo are in equilibrium with those of modern waters, while \{δ\{\}\+\{13\}C\} values are indicative of snail dietary carbon and a lake with high \{δ\{\}\+\{13\}C\}\-\{TDIC\}. By calibrating \{δ\{\}\+\{18\}O\} and \{δ\{\}\+\{13\}C\} in the shell Gyraulus sibirica (Dunker) with instrument\|measured data for the period 1954-1992, we found that the \{δ\{\}\+\{18\}O\} of the snail shells is an efficient indicator to reveal air temperature in the warmer half year instead of that around the whole year, and that there is a certain positive correlation between index\{δ\{\}\+\{18\}O\} and the running average temperature in the warmer half\|year period. Climatic variability on eastern Tibet Plateau, for the last two centuries, has been successfully inferred from the\{δ\{\}\+\{18\}O\} record in freshwater snails in the sediments of Lake Xingcuo. As such, the last 200 years of palaeoclimatic record for this region can be separated into three periods representing oscillations between warming and cooling, which are confirmed by the Guliya ice record on the Tibet Plateau.

Dynamic Changes of Lakes in Tibet Plateau and the Climate Interaction in the Past Forty Years

Lake change,as a mirror of climate change,has obvious indication and warning effect on climate.By extracting information of all lakes in Tibet Plateau from Landsat of the 1970’s,the 1990’s,around 2000 and 2010 based on RS and GIS,and,in combination with on-the-spot investigations to a few representative lakes,the authors

WEATHERING AND CLIMATE CHANGE SINCE 1820 AD IN HOH XIL, QINGHAI-XIZANG PLATEAU, CHINA——EVIDENCE FROM ELEMENT GEOCHEMISTRY OF LAKE SEDIMENTS OF GULUG CO LAKE

Element geochemistry of lake sediments has been widely used to detect climate change because element composition and ratios can reflect the weathering degree in the source area. Given the element composition of lake sediments from Gulug Co Lake, Hoh Xil, Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, chemical index of alteration (CIA), index of composition variability (ICV) and other element ratios have been used to establish the weathering sequence of this area since 1820 AD. The weathering is so weak that the element composition change is more sensitive to climate change and autochthonous processes. From 1820 to 1984 AD, there were two drier periods with a wetter interval from 1870 to 1945 AD. After 1984 the weather showed a tendency of becoming wet.