Abstract
The degradation of water quality in lakes and its negative effects on freshwater ecosystems have become a serious problem worldwide. Exploring the dynamics in the associated factors is essential for water pollution management and control. GIS interpolation, principal component analysis (PCA) and multivariate statistical techniques were used to identify the main pollution sources in different areas of Honghu Lake. The results indicate that the spatial distribution of the concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphate (TP), ammonia nitrogen (NH4+–N), and permanganate index (CODMn) have similar characteristics and that their values gradually increased from south to north during the three seasons in Honghu Lake. The major influencing factors of water quality varied across the different areas and seasons. The relatively high concentrations of TN and TP, which might limit the growth of submerged aquatic plants, were mainly caused by anthropogenic factors. Our work suggests that spatial analyses combined with PCA are useful for investigating the factors that influence water quality and submerged aquatic plant biomass in different areas of a lake. These findings provide sound information for the future water quality management of the lake or even the entire lake basin.
Highlights
Water quality deterioration in lakes has recently been a matter of great concern due to its negative impacts on social, economic, and health aspects [1] and has been recognized as a serious problem at local, regional and global levels [2]
Honghu Lake in China was used as a case study to illustrate the spatial and seasonal variations in water quality and the growth of aquatic plants, as well as their influencing factors using a combination of GIS interpolation and principal component analysis (PCA) methods
The results indicate that water quality and submerged aquatic plant biomass showed significant spatial and seasonal variations, especially in areas near the outlets of inflowing rivers and those surrounded by human settlements and agricultural activities
Summary
Water quality deterioration in lakes has recently been a matter of great concern due to its negative impacts on social, economic, and health aspects [1] and has been recognized as a serious problem at local, regional and global levels [2]. The pollution of shallow lakes has had serious influences on the security of drinking water and the function of ecosystems, causing, for example, wetland degradation, eutrophication and salinization [4]. These adverse impacts could result in the rapid production of phytoplankton and other microorganisms and lead to frequent outbreaks of algal blooms and declines in submerged aquatic vegetation [5]. The percentage of eutrophic lakes has significantly increased from 41.2% to 84.5%
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