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The role of mechanical harvesting on the recession of aquatic vegetation under an extreme water level increase in a eutrophic shallow lake

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Abstract

Mechanical harvesting is quick and effective way to remove nuisance macrophytes and improve recreational use and aesthetics in shallow lake. However, applying mechanical harvesting to macrophytes in eutrophic shallow lake with weak resilience and strong perturbation raises concerns of the public and scientific communities. A combination of field investigation and remote sensing was used to determine the potential driving factors of macrophyte degradation in a eutrophic shallow lake from 2014 to 2017, including a comparative analysis of preserved and harvested areas to determine the impacts of mechanical harvesting. Over 95% of macrophytes had disappeared by 2017 in both preserved and harvested areas, with no significant difference in macrophyte distribution area or decline rate between the two by that time. The decline rate in the harvested area (76.7%) was slightly higher than in the preserved area (61.7%) in 2016 after performing the mechanical harvesting in 2015. The results demonstrate that mechanical harvesting is not the definitive driving factor for macrophyte loss, but it could accelerate the decline process. Bottom light availability (Secchi disk depth to water level), which decreased from 0.70 to 0.29 in 2015 and from 0.70 to 0.21 in 2016, is more likely the driving factor, caused by extreme water level increase events in two consecutive years (2015 and 2016) and decreased water clarity. Maintaining water clarity and low water level is crucial for macrophyte restoration.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Bureau of Water Resources of Wujiang District (grant nos. SZWK2020WJD001 and SZSY2018WJG033), the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse of Tongji University (grant no. PCRRIC16005), and China Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (grant no. 2017ZX07205). Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security and the Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Changtao Yang, Jing Nan & Jianhua Li

  2. Research Center for Aquatic Ecology of East Taihu Lake, Suzhou, 215200, China

    Changtao Yang & Jing Nan

  3. Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education of China, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Jianhua Li

  4. College of Surveying and Geo-informatics, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Yi Lin & Jie Yu

  5. Bureau of Water Resource of Wujiang District, Suzhou, 215228, China

    Jianbin Wu & Xiaobing Shen

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  1. Changtao Yang
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  5. Jie Yu
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Contributions

Changtao Yang involved in conceptualization, writing-original draft, formal analysis. Jing Nan involved in Data curation, investigation, writing-original draft preparation, visualization. Jianhua Li involved in writing-reviewing and editing, supervision. Yi Lin involved in visualization, methodology. Jie Yu involved in software, methodology. Jianbin Wu involved in data curation, investigation, resources. Xiaobing Shen involved in data curation, validation.

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Correspondence to Jianhua Li.

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Yang, C., Nan, J., Li, J. et al. The role of mechanical harvesting on the recession of aquatic vegetation under an extreme water level increase in a eutrophic shallow lake. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 61682–61695 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15143-3

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