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Influence of the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir on hydrothermal conditions for fish habitat in the Yangtze River

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Abstract

The thermal regimes of rivers play an important role in the overall health of aquatic ecosystems. Modifications to water temperature regimes resulting from dams and reservoirs have important consequences for river ecosystems. This study investigates the impacts of the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) on the water temperature regime of fish spawning habitats in the middle reach of the Yangtze River, China. Mike 11 model is used to analyze the temporal and spatial variation of water temperatures of the expanse of 400 km along the river, from Yichang to Chenglingji. The water temperature alterations caused by the operation of the TGR are assessed with river temperature metrics. The impact on spawning habitats due to water temperature variation was also discussed in different impoundments of the TGR. The results show that the TGR has significantly altered the downstream water temperature regime, affecting the baseline deviation and phase shift of the water temperature. Such impacts on the thermal regime of the river varied with the impoundment level. The effects of the TGR on the water temperature regime decreased as the distance from the structure to the sample site increased. The water temperature regime alterations have led to the delay of the spawning times of the four famous major carp (FFMC) species. The results could be used to identify the magnitudes of water temperature alterations induced by reservoirs in the Yangtze River and provide useful information to design ecological operations for the protection of river ecosystem integrity in regulated rivers.

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Data Availability

Data on daily discharge and water temperature were provided by the Ministry of Water Conservancy of China (CWRC) (http://www.cjw.gov.cn/). The datasets are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021MS041), and the National Natural Science Fund of China (51679118).

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  1. School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Yuankun Wang

  2. School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    Rujian Qiu, Yuwei Tao & Jichun Wu

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Yuankun Wang: methodology, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; Rujan Qiu: data curation, writing—review and editing; Yuwei Tao: data investigation; Jichun Wu: project administration.

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Wang, Y., Qiu, R., Tao, Y. et al. Influence of the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir on hydrothermal conditions for fish habitat in the Yangtze River. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 10995–11011 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22930-z

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