Spatial and Temporal Variations of Eutrophication in Poyang Lake

Lake eutrophication is a key point in water environmental problems in the world. Spatiotemporal variations of nutrients and chlorophyll-a and eutrophication index in Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, are analyzed in this paper basing on field observation data at 17 sampling points from 2011 to 2016. The results show that nutrient concentrations have obvious seasonality characteristics and present bigger values in the low water period than the high water period. The peak value of chlorophyll-a concentration appears in July and October respectively. As a whole, the eutrophication index in the low water period is higher than the high water period, and the maximum value is found in October which mainly due to the high chlorophyll-a concentration. Poyang Lake is at light eutrophication level from 2011 to 2012, and mesotrophic from 2013 to 2016. From the perspective of space, nutrient concentrations in the southern part of the lake is higher than the northern part in general, and chlorophyll-a and eutrophication index show the similar law. This paper makes a quantitative analysis for spatial and temporal variations of eutrophication which benefit the water management especially water pollution control in Poyang Lake