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Tempo-spatial dynamics of water quality and its response to river flow in estuary of Taihu Lake based on GOCI imagery

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Abstract

Knowledge of tempo-spatial dynamics of water quality and its response to river flow is important for the management of lake water quality because river discharge associated with rainstorms can be an important source of pollutants to the estuary. Total phosphorus (TP), chlorophyll a (Chl-a), and total suspended matter (TSM) are important indexes of water quality and important factors influencing eutrophication and algal blooms. In this study, remote sensing was used to monitor these indexes to investigate the effects of river discharge on the estuary of Taihu Lake by the largest inflow river which is Chendong River using a total of 136 Geostationary Ocean Color Images (GOCI). In situ datasets collected during the four cruise experiments on Taihu Lake between 2011 and 2015 were used to develop the TP, Chl-a, and TSM inversion models based on simple empirical algorithms: 154 points for TP (mg/L), 114 for Chl-a (μg/L), and 181 for TSM (mg/L). The spatial and temporal changes of the concentration of the three parameters in the Chendong River estuary were analyzed by combining the GOCI data, the flow of the Chendong River, and meteorological data throughout the year in 2014. The several key findings are as follows: (1) In summer and autumn, TP, Chl-a, and TSM contents were significantly higher than in winter and spring. TP and Chl-a have a few similar distribution characteristics. And organic suspended matter in summer was the main reason for the increase of the TSM concentration. (2) The severe surface erosion in the rivers cannot be ignored; the high erodibility is an important factor in the increase of TP and TSM concentrations in the estuary. The concentration of the water quality parameter showed exponential decay with distance from the shore. The concentration decreased slowly after 12 km and then remained essentially constant. (3) TP content in the Chendong River estuary decreased under steady flow inputs and dramatically increased when the flow became large. The increase in Chl-a content was linked to higher levels of TP and good weather conditions after the rain event. Higher flow rates mainly play a dilution role for the Chl-a concentration. Erosion of the surface soil via rainfall is a major source of TSM to the estuary. This paper firstly analyzes tempo-spatial dynamics of water quality and its response to river flow in estuary of Taihu Lake, helps to further understand the impact of river input on lake water quality, and is important for lake eutrophication.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Nantional Key R&D Program of China [2017YFB0503902], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41671340], [41501374], [41571324] and [41701412], the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province [20171BAB213024] and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China [LQ16D010001]. We thank the KOSC for providing the GOCI data, as well as the Jiangsu Environmental Monitoring for providing the automatic monitoring data. The authors would like to thank Xudong Wang, Simin Zhang, Shuang Wen, Shaohua Lei, Xiaolei Ding, and Shun Bi for their participation in the field sample collection and experimental analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Geographic Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Chenggong Du, Yunmei Li, Ge Liu, Zhubin Zheng & Meng Mu

  2. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Chenggong Du, Yunmei Li, Ge Liu, Zhubin Zheng & Meng Mu

  3. Satellite Environment Application Center, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Beijing, 100029, China

    Qiao Wang

  4. School of Tourism and City Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Yuan Li

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  1. Chenggong Du
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  2. Yunmei Li
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  7. Yuan Li
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Correspondence to Yunmei Li.

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Du, C., Li, Y., Wang, Q. et al. Tempo-spatial dynamics of water quality and its response to river flow in estuary of Taihu Lake based on GOCI imagery. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 28079–28101 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0305-7

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