title: Aquatic vegetation in response to increased eutrophication and degraded light climate in Eastern Lake Taihu: Implications for lake ecological restoration.
abstract: Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem degradation is widely recognized as a major global environmental and development problem. Although great efforts have been made to prevent aquatic ecosystem degradation, the degree, extent and impacts of this phenomenon remain controversial and unclear, such as its driving mechanisms. Here, we present results from a 17-year field investigation (1998-2014) of water quality and a 12-year remote sensing mapping (2003-2014) of the aquatic vegetation presence frequency (VPF) in Eastern Lake Taihu, a macrophyte-dominated bay of Lake Taihu in China. In the past 17 years, nutrient concentrations and water level (WL) have significantly increased, but the Secchi disk depth (SDD) has significantly decreased. These changes were associated with increased lake eutrophication and a degraded underwater light climate that further inhibited the growth of aquatic vegetation. In Eastern Lake Taihu, increased nutrients, chlorophyll a and WL, and a decreased SDD were all significantly correlated with a decreased VPF. NH4(+)-N concentration and SDD/WL were the most important controlling factors for VPF. Therefore, increased anthropogenic nutrient inputs and a degraded underwater light climate surely result in a decreased VPF. These results elucidate the driving mechanism of aquatic vegetation degradation and will facilitate Lake Taihu ecological restoration.
authors.affiliation: Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yunlin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaohan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Boqiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jianming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Taihu Laboratory for Lake Ecosystem Research, State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yongqiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation; D005068:Eutrophication; D060106:Lakes; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development*; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D002734:Chlorophyll; C085815:chlorophyll a'