Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #351190

Research Project: Increasing the Value of Cottonseed

Location: Commodity Utilization Research

Title: Three decades of changes in water environment of a large freshwater Lake and its relationship with socio-economic indicators

Author
item LI, CUICUI - Chinese Research Academy Of Environmental Sciences
item FENG, WEIYING - Chinese Research Academy Of Environmental Sciences
item SONG, FANGHAO - Chinese Research Academy Of Environmental Sciences
item He, Zhongqi
item WU, FENGCHANG - Chinese Research Academy Of Environmental Sciences
item ZHU, YUANRONG - Chinese Research Academy Of Environmental Sciences
item GEISY, JOHN - University Of Saskatchewan
item BAI, YINGCHEN - Chinese Research Academy Of Environmental Sciences

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/6/2018
Publication Date: 2/1/2019
Citation: Li, C., Feng, W., Song, F., He, Z., Wu, F., Zhu, Y., Geisy, J.P., Bai, Y. 2019. Three decades of changes in water environment of a large freshwater Lake and its relationship with socio-economic indicators. Journal of Environmental Science. 77:156-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2018.07.001.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2018.07.001

Interpretive Summary: Cyanobacterial blooming is a serious environmental concern in the eutrophic lake of Tai Lake, China. Understanding of the chronical changes of its key water chemistry indicators may shed light on developing better ecological environment management practices and drinking water quality control of Tai Lake, in the present study, we collected and analyzed chronical data of key chemistry indicators (TN, TP, Chlorophyll-a [Chl-a], COD, and biological oxygen demand [BOD]) and socio-economic factors (population; GDP; and industrial, agricultural, and domestic sewage) from Tai Lake, over a period of 32 years (1980-2012). The major socio-economic factors influencing the Tai Lake aquatic environment quality (i. e., chemistry) were identified via quantitative analysis of the correlationship between the two types of parameters. At last, helpful theoretical outcome was proposed for policy development and implementation in better environmental management practices in Tai Lake area (watershed).

Technical Abstract: Cyanobacterial blooming is a serious environmental concern in the eutrophic lake of Tai Lake, China. Understanding of the chronical changes of its key water chemistry indicators may shed light on developing better ecological environment management practices and drinking water quality control of Tai Lake. Thus, in this work, using 32-year historical data from 1980 to 2012 we analyzed and discussed the change trends of Tai Lake water chemistry indicators over the past three decades as well as the impacts of several socio-economic effect factors. We observed that 1) Concentrations of the monitored water chemistry indicators, were fluctuated with increasing trends in the 32 years; and 2) total nitrogen [TN], total phosphorus [TP], chemical oxygen demand [COD], and biological oxygen demand [BOD] were significantly correlated with the socio-economic factors of population, GDP, and domestic sewage discharge (R2>0.8, p<0.01). Further analysis revealed that TP concentrations and BOD experienced rapid increases and reached a gradually plateauing level following with increasing population, gross domestic product (GDP), whereas TN and COD showed significantly positive correlations with socio-economic factors during the early stages, but significantly negative correlations during the later stages. The results showed that the influence of China’s Tai Lake GDP growth on lake environments have gradually decreased in recent years, whereas agricultural sewage has become the most influential factor of TN and COD. The impacts of GDP, TP and BOD have gradually weakened; however, domestic sewage and population growth still account for over 25% of the total influence on these two water chemistry indicators.