Effects of functional microorganisms and environmental factors on CO2 and CH4 emissions in a typical floodplain lake system.

Aquatic macrophytes are a vital component of lake ecosystems, profoundly influencing ecosystem structure and function. Under future scenarios of more frequent extreme floods and intensified lake eutrophication, aquatic macrophytes will face increasing challenges. Therefore, understanding aquatic macrophyte responses to flood disturbances and nutrient enrichment is crucial for predicting future vegetation dynamics in lake ecosystems. This study focuses on Huangmaotan Lake, a Yangtze River floodplain lake, where we reconstructed 200-year successional trajectories of macrophyte communities and their driving mechanisms. With a multiproxy approach we analyzed a well-dated sediment core incorporating plant macrofossils, grain size, nutrient elements, heavy metals, and historical flood records from the watershed. The results demonstrate a significant shift in the macrophyte community, from species that existed before 1914 to species that existed by 2020. Unlike the widespread macrophyte degradation seen in most regional lakes, this lake has maintained clear-water plant dominance and experienced continuous vegetation expansion over the past 50 years. We attribute this to the interrelated effects of floods and the enrichment of ecosystems with nutrients. Specifically, our findings suggest that nutrient enrichment can mitigate the stress effects of floods on aquatic macrophytes, while flood disturbances help reduce excess nutrient concentrations in the water column. These findings offer applicable insights for aquatic vegetation restoration in the Yangtze River floodplain and other comparable lake systems worldwide.

Estimation of water storage changes in a tropical lake-floodplain system through remote sensing

Abstract Poyang Lake is a dynamic floodplain lake system that exhibits complex water level fluctuations and experiences significant regime changes over space and time, which remains to be further explored. This study used the variational mode decomposition (VMD) model to decompose the Poyang Lake's water levels from 1960 to 2022 at four key stations into six intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), namely IMF1–IMF6, representing variations on different time scales. The results present significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity. The multi‐year variation (IMF1) accounts for 5.6%–12.4% of the total variation and displays a northward decreasing trend, reflecting the lake's river‐like characteristics. The spectrum of IFM1 also reveals a significant 3.6‐year fluctuation mainly attributed to the tributary inflow, especially the Ganjiang River. The IMF1 differences between stations show abrupt decreases since the 2000s, indicating the impact of concentrated sand mining activities on the northern and central regions. The annual variation (IMF2) is the most prominent, contributing 76.1%–88.4% of the total variation, and shows a southward attenuation trend, likely due to the weakening influence of the Yangtze River flow. The intra‐annual scale (IMF3–IMF6) represents 6.0%–11.5% of the total variation and exhibits less spatial difference compared to the multi‐year and annual variations. The VMD model effectively separates the water level signals into different frequency bands, providing insights into the complex interactions between the lake, tributaries, and Yangtze River, as well as the impacts of human activities like sand mining, enhancing understanding of floodplain lake dynamics. The results also imply the importance of coping with the water level decline of Poyang Lake.

Effects of a proposed hydraulic project on the surface water connectivity in Poyang Lake floodplain system, China: Numerical simulation and geostatistical analysis

Microplastic contamination is a challenge in aquatic systems. Among these, floodplains exhibit their cyclical hydrological patterns with substantial fluctuations in water levels caused by annual floods or discharges from rivers into lakes. The influence of water level fluctuation on microplastics within complex floodplain systems has received limited attention in existing studies. This study employs hydrological data and a physics-based hydrodynamic model to assess the effects of water level fluctuations on the transport and redistribution of microplastics within Poyang Lake from 2018 to 2025. High spatiotemporal distribution variability in microplastic concentrations was found within the flood and drought periods. Furthermore, the residence rate of microplastics was assessed based on the microplastic concentration variations in the computational time. A gradual drop in the average discharge rate of microplastics was assessed at the outlet of Poyang Lake. The microplastics are more likely to drain into the Yangtze River in the high water-level period. Meanwhile, under the influence of hydrodynamics, local topography, and water level fluctuation, an accumulation of microplastics appears on the shallow shoals of the western and eastern regions of Poyang Lake, especially in the Gan River. Overall, by means of numerical simulation, the aim of our study is to serve as a reference and advance our understanding of the transportation patterns of microplastics at the aquatic–terrestrial interface.

Hazards associated with microplastics (MPs) and the pollutants they absorb in freshwater lake ecosystems have become a hot research topic in academia. In this study, in order to investigate potential affiliated MP hazards, lake MP samples were collected from a typical subtropical freshwater lake system in China (Poyang Lake) during the dry season (here, you should show the specific months) to explore their potential toxic element (PTE) response (i.e., exposure to Cu, Pb, and Zn) respective to the ecological environment and resident phytoplankton. Results show that average MP abundance in surface water can reach up to 1800 items m-3, which higher in the Nanjishan Wetland National Nature Reserve (NWNNR) (1175 items m-3). Polyester (i.e., purified terephthalic acid [PTA]) and polyethylene (PE) were the main polymer types found in surface water, fiber was the main MP shape, and most of the MP particle sizes are greater than 100 μm. Moreover, phytoplankton biomass was significantly higher in the NWNNR compared to Poyang Lake's retention basin and water channel. It indicated that MP pollutant status of Poyang Lake is mild; however, the ecological risks that MPs pose should not be ignored. The significant positive correlation between MPs and PTEs indicated that PTE absorption and desorption by MPs may cause potential ecological stress. Although we anticipate no direct link between ecotoxicity and phytoplankton, MPs may have indirect effects on phytoplankton through their regulatory effects on PTE levels in water.

Multi-source remote sensing data and image fusion technology reveal significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity of inundation dynamics in a typical large floodplain lake system

Spatial-temporal variations of stage-area hysteretic relationships in large heterogeneous lake–floodplain systems

Quantifying the impacts of a proposed hydraulic dam on groundwater flow behaviors and its eco-environmental implications in the large Poyang Lake-floodplain system

Phytoplankton productivity in a tropical lake-floodplain system revealed by a process-based primary production model

Biodiversity, which strengthens ecosystem stability, ecosystem function, and ecosystem services, is threatened by anthropogenic perturbation and climate change worldwide. However, despite the study of the role of biodiversity in multiple facets of freshwater ecosystems, the linkages between macroinvertebrates diversity and ecosystem functioning have not yet been well-assessed in eutrophication gradients of lowland river-floodplain systems. In this study, we have examined the relationship between macroinvertebrates diversity (species diversity, functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity) and macroinvertebrates biomass across the three typically featured eutrophication gradients: "MACROPHYTE," "TRANSITION," and "PHYTOPLANKTON," of floodplain lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (China). Our results suggest that macroinvertebrates diversity in three different lacustrine conditions, biomass, and the relationship between diversity and biomass varied along eutrophication gradients. Functional richness and variance (divergence in taxon community) were the two important macroinvertebrate diversity indices, which accounted for the largest amount of variation in the biomass (63% in PHYTOPLANKTON lakes and 57% in MACROPHYTE lakes, respectively). We also found that the macrophyte coverage is more important than the relative abundance in maintaining the macroinvertebrates diversity and biomass in lowland Yangtze floodplain lake systems, while the relative abundance of macrophyte would change the BEF relationship. Our results demonstrate the functional performance of Yangtze River lakes, which would change with increased nutrient loading and decreased macrophyte coverage and would highlight the significance of the restoration of macrophytes to reduce nutrient loads.

Dissolved silicon in a lake-floodplain system: Dynamics and its role in primary production

Lake pigment characteristics and their applicability in reconstructing phytoplankton communities under irregular hydrological regulation in a floodplain lake system

Groundwater dynamics of a lake-floodplain system: Role of groundwater flux in lake water storage subject to seasonal inundation

The drivers that determine the hydrological connectivity (HC) are complex and interrelated, and disentangling this complexity will improve the administration of the river–lake interconnection system. Dongting Lake, as a typical river–lake interconnected system, is freely connected with the Yangtze River and their HC plays a major role in keeping the system healthy. Climate, hydrology, and anthropogenic activities are associated with the HC. In this study, hydrological drivers were divided into the total flow of three inlets (T-flow) and the total flow of four tributaries (F-flow). To elucidate the HC of the Dongting Lake, HC was calculated by geostatistical methods in association with Sentinel-2 remote sensing images. Then, the structural equation model (SEM) was used to quantify the impacts of hydrology (F-flow, and T-flow) and meteorology (precipitation, evaporation, and temperature) on HC. The geostatistical analysis results demonstrated that the HC showed apparent seasonal change. For East and West Dongting Lake, the dominant element was north–south hydrological connectivity (N–S HC), and the restricted was west–east hydrological connectivity (W-E HC), but the dominant element was E–W HC and the restricted was N–S HC in South Dongting Lake. The results of SEM showed that N–S HC was mainly explained by T-flow (r = 0.49, p < 0.001) and F-flow (r = 0.28, p < 0.05). T-flow, temperature (r = 0.33, p < 0.05), and F-flow explained E–W HC. The finding of this work supports the management of both the Dongting Lake floodplain and other similar river–lake floodplain systems.

Hydrological disconnection from the Yangtze River triggered rapid environmental degradation in a riverine lake

The role of phytoplankton communities on coupled carbon-silicon cycling in a large floodplain lake system

Phytoplankton community composition, carbon sequestration, and associated regulatory mechanisms in a floodplain lake system

Hydrodynamics-based modeling of phosphorus balance and dynamics in a large tropical floodplain