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.

Impact of land use change on water quality in the Dianchi Lake watershed, Yunnan, China, 1988-2008

Land use changes occurring in China during the time period of rapid economic development are linked to the degradation of water quality in streams and lakes. This paper examines these linkages in the Dianchi Lake watershed in Yunnan in southwest China based on a twenty-year data set from 1988 to 2008. Pearson correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis are employed to explore the relationships between land use change and water quality of two sub-basins, the Caohai Lake basin and the Waihai Lake basin, within the Dianchi Lake watershed. Land use categories more strongly correlate to water quality in the Caohai Lake basin than that in the Waihai Lake basin. The different structure of land use categories, spatial distribution of land cover, and scales of buffer zones could be the factors resulting in the dissimilarities between these two lakes. The research can provide valuable insights for policymakers into land use management in order to curb further water degradation in Dianchi Lake.

Internal Loads and Bioavailability of Phosphorus and Nitrogen in Dianchi Lake,China

Sediments have a significant influence on the cycling of nutrient elements in lake environments. In order to assess the distribution characteristics and estimate the bioavailability of phosphorus and nitrogen in Dianchi Lake, organic and inorganic phosphorus and nitrogen forms were analysed. The 210 Pb radiometric dating method was employed to study temporal changes in the phosphorus and nitrogen pools in Dianchi Lake. The result show that the total phosphorus(TP) and total nitrogen(TN) were both at high concentrations, ranging from 697.5–3210.0 mg/kg and 1263.7–7155.2 mg/kg, respectively. Inorganic phosphorus(IP) and total organic nitrogen(TON) were the main constituents, at percentages of 59%–78% and 74%–95%, respectively, in the sediments. Spatially, there was a decreasing trend in phosphorus and nitrogen contents from the south and north to the lake centre, which is related to the distribution pattern of local economic production. The burial rates of the various phosphorus and nitrogen forms increased in same spatially and over time. Particularly in the past two decades, the burial rates doubled, with that TN reached to 1.287 mg/(cm^2·yr) in 2014. As the most reactive forms, nitrate nitrogen(NO_3-N) and ammonia nitrogen(NH_4-N) were buried more rapidly in the south region, implying that the potential for releasing sedimentary nitrogen increased from north to south. Based on their concentrations and burial rates, the internal loads of phosphorus and nitrogen were analysed for the last century. A TP pool of 71597.6 t and a TN pool of 81191.7 t were estimated for Dianchi Lake. Bioavailable phosphorus and nitrogen pools were also estimated at 44468.0 t and 5429.7 t, respectively, for the last century.

Countermeasures on improving the charge rules and long-acting operation mechanism for the treating residential domestic sewage and household garbage in rural Yunnan

Improving the rural living environment in rural China is one of the key tasks for the country to accomplish its goal of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020. Yunnan has highly focused on the task of the treatment of residential domestic sewage and household garbage in rural area. Many efforts and resources have been put into this field in Yunnan since 2016. Progress has been made to increase the coverage rate of the sewage and household garbage treatment facilities. Seventy-five percent of total administrative villages have built up garbage transportation system and treatment facilities. Sixty-three percent of towns have collected and treated the residential domestic sewage by constructing various scale sewage treatment stations. However, the lack of the long-acting operation mechanism and the imperfection of the charge rules for the sewage and garbage treatment facilities have become problems that would hinder the achieving of the environmental goals in Yunnan. The reasons were elaborated on the basis of the local actual situations. Therefore, it is significant to improve the charge rules and frame the long-acting operation mechanism by strengthening the governance capacity, frame an overall mechanism and encourage the mass to be involved in the improvements of the living environment in rural Yunnan.

Nitrogen forms and pollution load of Dianchi Lake inflow river runoff in rainy season

With the control of point source pollution in Dianchi Lake basin, and the expansion of Kunming city, non-point source pollution has become the main source pollution of urban water environment and Dianchi Lake. To reveal the nitrogen pollution characteristics in watershed, this research selected key monitoring points and sections at Baoxiang river basin in rainy season which is the peak transported time of non-point source pollution, the nitrogen and hydrological indicators are monitored systematically. The different forms of nitrogen are analyzed, the pollution load of nitrogen are calculated and studied at cardinal sections; combined with the literature data, we compared the water nitrogen characteristics of Dianchi basin and Taihu basin, the main results are as follows:(1) In summer, water nitrogen form of Baoxiang river in the Caohe area is dominated by nitrate nitrogen, while in other areas it is dominated by ammonia nitrogen which is accounted for 31%-50% of total nitrogen;(2) The water pollution loads of Baoxiang river tended to increase from upstream to downstream, from June to August the total nitrogen pollution mainly comes from urban areas and the pollution load is 166.408 t;(3) In Dianchi Lake watershed and Taihu Lake watershed nitrogen concentration of inflow river is higher than that of the lake, nitrate nitrogen concentration between inflow river and lake shows a little difference, while ammonia nitrogen concentration of inflow river is higher than that of the lake. The results can provide the theoretical basis for nonpoint source pollution control and urban water environment planning and improvement in Dianchi Lake Basin.

Dynamic phosphorus budget for lake-watershed ecosystems

Lake eutrophication caused by excess phosphorus （P） loading from point sources （PS） and nonpoint sources （NPS） is a persistent and serious ecological problem in China. A phosphorus budget, based on material flow analysis（MFA） and system dynamic （SD）, is proposed and applied for the agriculture-dominated Qionghai Lake watershed located in southwestern China. The MFA-SD approach will not only cover the transporting process of P in the lake-watershed ecosystems, but also can deal with the changes of P budget due to the dynamics of watershed. P inflows include the fertilizer for agricultural croplands, soil losses, domestic sewage discharges, and the atmospheric disposition such as precipitation and dust sinking. Outflows are consisted of hydrologic export, water resources development, fishery and aquatic plants harvesting. The internal P recycling processes are also considered in this paper. From 1988 to 2015, the total P inflows for Lake Qionghai are in a rapid increase from 35.65 to 78.73 t/a, which results in the rising of P concentration in the lake. Among the total P load 2015, agricultural loss and domestic sewage account for 70.60% and 17.27% respectively, directly related to the rapid social-economic development and the swift urbanization. Future management programs designed to reduce P inputs must be put into practices in the coming years to ensure the ecosystem health in the watershed.

Seasonal and spatial distributions of euphotic zone and longterm variations in water transparency in a clear oligotrophic Lake Fuxian, China

To assess the seasonal and spatial variations and long-term trends in water optical properties in Lake Fuxian, investigations based on field work in four seasons and a long-term analysis of data from 1980 to 2014 were conducted. The results show that there was no significant variation in the euphotic depth（Z（eu）） across the four seasons, and no significant correlations between Z（eu） and potential influencing factors in seasons other than summer, suggesting that the water itself may be a major factor regulating the Z（eu）in general. Nevertheless, significant differences in Z（eu） between the north region（NR） and the south region（SR） were observed in all seasonal tests except spring. This finding relates to a higher abundance of chromophoric dissolved organic matter（CDOM） in the NR due to runoff, especially in the rainy seasons（summer and autumn）.CDOM and its terrigenous component had an important impact on Z（eu）in summer, with the highest precipitation, and impacts from suspended solids and non-algal particles were also found in the NR in summer. The Secchi disk depth in the lake decreased clearly over the years,with significantly negative correlations with the increasing permanganate index and air temperature, implying that organic contaminants（CDOM and/or phytoplankton） are important regulators of water transparency. We estimate that the combined effects of climate warming and changes in land use and land cover are also indirect regulating factors. These findings should be considered in the protection of Lake Fuxian, owing to the importance of light penetration in aquatic ecosystems.