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Plateau Lake Water Quality and Biodiversity: Impacts of Human Activity...
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Plateau Lake Water Quality and Biodiversity: Impacts of Human Activity and Trans-regional Water Diversion

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Quality and Contamination".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2024 | Viewed by 1560

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Hucai Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
Interests: lake sediments and environment change; paleoclimate and global changes; absolute dating (AMS-14C, OSL); lake ecology and water security; anthropology-paleontology and climate changes; stable isotopes and geochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jing’an Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China
Interests: water environment and security; lake eutrophication; sediment pollution and control; biogeochemical cycles of nutrients; isotope geochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Frank Riedel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, D-12249 Berlin, Germany
Interests: lake science and ecology; environmental chemistry; stable isotopes; biodiversity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Together with rivers and subterranean aquifers, lakes are indispensable natural resources for humans and other organisms. Lakes not only play a crucial role in water supply, food production and climate regulation but also function as a cornerstone for socioeconomic susceptible development.

During the last century, anthropogenic climate changes, especially seasonal climate alternations, intensified widespread use of agricultural chemicals (e.g., fertilizers and pesticides), and rapidly increasing urbanization have dramatically changed regional watershed and hydrological patterns, exerting excessive pressure on lacustrine ecosystems.

Ongoing climate change is expected to accelerate hydrological cycles and thereby increase available renewable freshwater resources. This will inevitably induce fundamental variations in lake systems and their functions. In this vein, we anticipate that much more time and effort are needed to restore the health conditions of polluted lakes. Large-long-distance transregional water drainage has been proposed to mitigate lake water pollution and water shortages; however, this drainage might not only result in abrupt changes in established watershed ecosystems but also disrupt the balance of biodiversity and bioinvasion, which can lead to catastrophic ecological disasters.

Prof. Dr. Hucai Zhang
Dr. Jing’an Chen
Prof. Dr. Frank Riedel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • eutrophication
  • lakes and reservoirs
  • transregional water drainage
  • water quality
  • biodiversity
  • sustainable development

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 12788 KiB  
Article
Human-Altered Water and Carbon Cycles in the Lake Yangzong Basin since the Yuan Dynasty
by Huayong Li, Yuxue Jing, Hucai Zhang, Xuanxuan Shang, Lizeng Duan, Huayu Li, Donglin Li and Zhuohan Li
Water 2024, 16(9), 1271; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16091271 - 29 Apr 2024
Viewed by 260
Abstract
Due to the dual influence of climate change and human activities, the water cycle patterns in the lakesheds of the Yunnan karst plateau are undergoing significant changes, leading to increasingly prominent ecological issues. In the history of Lake Yangzong, an artificial water-diversion channel [...] Read more.
Due to the dual influence of climate change and human activities, the water cycle patterns in the lakesheds of the Yunnan karst plateau are undergoing significant changes, leading to increasingly prominent ecological issues. In the history of Lake Yangzong, an artificial water-diversion channel was excavated, altering the lake basin structure. Human activities have intensified, posing severe challenges to water resource supply and water security in recent decades. To investigate the significant increase in human activities, the temporal and phase changes, and the resulting transformation of the water and carbon cycles in the Lake Yangzong basin, we applied X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) to scan elements continuously in a 10.2 m sediment core from this lake. By combining correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), core chronology, and total organic carbon (TOC) content, we reconstructed the historical sequence of geochemical element contents in the Lake Yangzong catchment over the past 13,000 years. The results show that PC1 and PC2 contribute 78.4% and 10.3%, respectively, suggesting that erosion intensity is the main factor influencing the lake sedimentation process. From 13,400 to 680 cal a BP (calibrated years before the present), the sedimentation process in Lake Yangzong was mainly controlled by climatic conditions, with vegetation degradation during cold periods and relatively high erosion intensity in the watershed. During the Yuan dynasty, a province was established by the central government in Yunnan, promoting settlement and attracting a large number of immigrants from other provinces to Yunnan. Human activities in the Lake Yangzong basin began to intensify, surpassing natural changes and becoming the dominant force influencing the sedimentation process. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the population and cultivated land area in Yunnan further increased, resulting in the significant exacerbation of erosion and soil loss in the watershed due to vegetation destruction. In the year 1388, the Tangchi Canal was excavated, transforming Lake Yangzong to an outflow lake, causing Ca2+ to be lost through the Tangchi Canal and preventing the formation of precipitation due to oversaturation. The research results indicate that human activities in the Lake Yangzong area have intensified since the Yuan dynasty, leading to increased erosion intensity. The excavation of the outflow canal transformed Lake Yangzong from an inland lake basin into an outflow state, simultaneously generating a significant transformation in the water and carbon cycling patterns in the watershed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plateau Lake Water Quality and Biodiversity: Impacts of Human Activity and Trans-regional Water Diversion)
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17 pages, 3307 KiB  
Article
Occurrence and Risk Assessment of Antibiotics in Urban River–Wetland–Lake Systems in Southwest China
by Yanbo Zeng, Lizeng Duan, Tianbao Xu, Pengfei Hou, Jing Xu, Huayu Li and Hucai Zhang
Water 2024, 16(8), 1124; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16081124 - 15 Apr 2024
Viewed by 519
Abstract
Antibiotics in the aquatic environment are of great concern as novel contaminants. In this study, we investigated the occurrence, distribution, potential sources, and risk assessment of antibiotics in an interconnected river–wetland–lake system. Thirty-three target antibiotics, including sulfonamides (SAs), macrolides (MLs), fluoroquinolones (FQs), tetracyclines [...] Read more.
Antibiotics in the aquatic environment are of great concern as novel contaminants. In this study, we investigated the occurrence, distribution, potential sources, and risk assessment of antibiotics in an interconnected river–wetland–lake system. Thirty-three target antibiotics, including sulfonamides (SAs), macrolides (MLs), fluoroquinolones (FQs), tetracyclines (TCs), and chloramphenicol (CLs) belong to five common groups of antibiotics, were tested from water samples collected in the Panlong River, Xinghai Wetland, and Lake Dian (or Dianchi). Mass spectrophotometry was used to detect the target antibiotics, and the water quality parameters were measured in situ. We found four antibiotics, lincomycin (LIN), trimethoprim (TMP), sulfamethoxazole (SMX), and ofloxacin (OFL), with relatively low concentrations at the ng/L level, and detection rates among sample sites ranged from 42.3% to 76.9%, with maximum concentrations of 0.71 ng/L~5.53 ng/L. TMP was not detected in the Panlong River but appeared in the wetlands and Lake Dian. Midstream urban areas of the Panlong River showed the highest pollution among sites. Antibiotic concentrations were positively correlated with total nitrogen (TN) (p < 0.05) and showed some negative correlation with pH, salinity, and DO. According to the risk assessment, antibiotics in water do not pose a threat to human health and aquatic ecosystems, but a potentially harmful combined effect cannot be excluded. Our research offers a geographical summary of the distribution of antibiotics in urban river, wetland, and lake ecosystems in the plateau (PWL), which is important for predicting the distribution characteristics of antibiotics in the plateau water environment and establishing a standardized antibiotic monitoring and management system for the government. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plateau Lake Water Quality and Biodiversity: Impacts of Human Activity and Trans-regional Water Diversion)
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18 pages, 5741 KiB  
Article
Water Quality of Lake Erhai in Southwest China and Its Projected Status in the near Future
by Tianbao Xu, Wei Ma, Jun Chen, Lizeng Duan, Huayu Li and Hucai Zhang
Water 2024, 16(7), 972; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16070972 - 27 Mar 2024
Viewed by 566
Abstract
The water quality of Lake Erhai has deteriorated in recent decades due to socioeconomic development in the lake basin. After the massive implementation of water environmental protection measures in Lake Erhai in 2016, the trend of water quality deterioration has been curbed and [...] Read more.
The water quality of Lake Erhai has deteriorated in recent decades due to socioeconomic development in the lake basin. After the massive implementation of water environmental protection measures in Lake Erhai in 2016, the trend of water quality deterioration has been curbed and the intensity and frequency of algal blooms has decreased. However, water quality monitoring data show that pollutant concentrations in Lake Erhai still exceed acceptable values, and there is a risk of water quality standard limits being further exceeded in the future. Therefore, it is urgent to systematically study the variability characteristics of water quality in Lake Erhai to provide practical methods to predict the future evolution of water quality. Based on water quality monitoring data from 2009 to 2019, the current water quality characteristics of Lake Erhai were analyzed, and a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality mathematical model was built to predict the water quality in 2025. The results showed that the total phosphorus (TP) concentration declined after 2016, mainly due to the significant reduction of TP entering the lake due to pollution interception. However, the concentrations of the potassium permanganate index (CODMn) and total nitrogen (TN) increased after 2016, demonstrating that the pollution control measures have had little effect on the improvement of CODMn and TN. The spatial and temporal distribution of pollutants showed that the water quality in winter and spring was better than in summer and autumn, and the water quality in the southern lake was better than in the northern lake. This analysis indicates that non-point source pollution remains the main source of pollution in Lake Erhai, and that rainfall is the main driving force of pollutants exceeding the water quality standard. According to the water quality predictions, without additional pollution control measures, pollutant concentrations in Lake Erhai will exceed the Class II water quality standard by 2025. This study analyzes the water quality characteristics, predicts the direction of future water quality changes, and provides a theoretical basis for the future water quality protection of Lake Erhai. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plateau Lake Water Quality and Biodiversity: Impacts of Human Activity and Trans-regional Water Diversion)
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