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Watersheds Nutrient Loss and Eutrophication of the Marine Recipients: A Case Study of the Jiaozhou Bay, China

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Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus

Abstract

Industrialization and urbanization along the coastal population centers have brought great changes in the land cover and material fluxes from watersheds to receiving bays and estuaries. We have embarked a multiyear research project on “Watersheds Nutrient Loss and Eutrophication of Jiaozhou Bay” for the period of 2000 to 2004, funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China to examine human influence on the marine sector of ecosystem. Jiaozhou Bay, located in the southern part of Shandong Peninsula, was selected because of the existence of long-term hydrographic and meteorological records since the 1930s and recent observations on the marine ecological variables. We have made extensive and periodic measurements on the water movement, nutrients, phytoplankton, and microbe in water column and bottom sediments. Box and 3-dimensional hydrodynamic models were developed and utilized to understand the evolution of eutrophic status with time. It was found that primary productivity has suffered from silica depletion followed by phosphate, and the dominance of large phytoplankton has been replaced by small-size communities. These ecosystem changes were brought by the changes in the relative contribution among major pathways and concentrations, owing to the human activities in the watershed. Eight articles in this volume reported various aspects of the linkage between watershed human activities and ecosystem for the Jiaozhou Bay as the initial outcome of this project.

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Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), which supports the present study under contract No. 40036010. Colleagues from the research group of marine biogeochemistry of OUC and ECNU are acknowledged for their assistances in the field observations and laboratory work. Drs. G.H. Hong and X.C. Wang are acknowledged for their comments and suggestions, which improved the original manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, 3663 Zhongshan Road North, Shanghai, 200062, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Zhang

  2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, 5 Yushan Road, Qingdao, 266003, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Zhang

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Correspondence to Jing Zhang.

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Zhang, J. Watersheds Nutrient Loss and Eutrophication of the Marine Recipients: A Case Study of the Jiaozhou Bay, China. Water Air Soil Pollut: Focus 7, 583–592 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11267-007-9130-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11267-007-9130-1

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