Abstract
A lake ecosystem is continuously exposed to environmental stressors with non-linear interrelationships between abiotic factors and aquatic organisms. Ecosystem health depicts the capacity of system to respond to external perturbations and still maintain structure and function. In this study, we explored the effects of abiotic factors on ecosystem health of Taihu Lake in 2013, China from a system-level perspective. Spatiotemporal heterogeneities of eco-exergy and specific eco-exergy served as thermodynamic indicators to represent ecosystem health in the lake. The results showed the plankton community appeared more energetic in May, and relatively healthy in Gonghu Bay with both higher eco-exergy and specific eco-exergy; a eutrophic state was likely discovered in Zhushan Bay with higher eco-exergy but lower specific eco-exergy. Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) approach was used to explain the non-linear relationships between two indicators and abiotic factors. This analysis revealed water temperature, inorganic nutrients, and total suspended solids greatly contributed to the two indicators that increased. However, pH rise driven by inorganic carbon played an important role in undermining ecosystem health, particularly when pH was higher than 8.2. This implies that climate change with rising CO2 concentrations has the potential to aggravate eutrophication in Taihu Lake where high nutrient loads are maintained.
Highlights
Water quality management can best be upgraded to aquatic ecosystem health assessment by evaluating multiple environmental stressors that can potentially impair ecosystem structure and function and further undermine ecosystem goods and services
It gives us the composition of the ecosystem and it is a good indicator for ecosystem health assessment, when we focus on lake eutrophication[17]
Using Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) analysis we aim to examine the influence of abiotic factors, e.g., nutrients, temperature, and solar radiation, on the eco-exergy densities of the plankton community to obtain insights into how the ecosystem health of a shallow lake varies
Summary
Water quality management can best be upgraded to aquatic ecosystem health assessment by evaluating multiple environmental stressors that can potentially impair ecosystem structure and function and further undermine ecosystem goods and services. Reflecting the ability of an ecosystem to utilize available resources is defined as the ratio of eco-exergy to total biomass It gives us the composition of the ecosystem (the more developed organisms the higher specific eco-exergy) and it is a good indicator for ecosystem health assessment, when we focus on lake eutrophication[17]. We aim to calculate eco-exergy and specific eco-exergy indicators of plankton community at 33 sampling sites in Taihu Lake using monthly-measured phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass during 2013 to illustrate spatiotemporal variation of health level and plankton community dynamics, apply GBM to determine the effects of abiotic factors on lake ecosystem health. The quantitative relationship between ecological indicators and environmental parameters will help us to predict ecosystem health changes in a shallow lake
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
