Management of sustainable ecological water levels of endorheic salt lakes in the Inner Mongolian Plateau of China based on eco-hydrological processes

Hydrologic regime plays an important role in maintaining aquatic ecosystem structures and biogeochemical processes of endorheic salt lakes. Due to joint influences of regional climate change, runoff regulation and water withdrawal, ecological water deficiency has been increasingly prominent in endorheic salt lakes in Northwest China, especially in the Inner Mongolian Plateau. Previous studies mainly focused on establishing and applying methods to determine ecological water levels of lakes, while much less attention was paid to a more important problem – how such water levels could be reached under changed watershed hydrological processes. Solutions of this gap were explored in this study using the Dalinuoer Lake as an example. This lake is a typical endorheic salt lake located in the Inner Mongolian Plateau. It is a critical source to provide important ecological services and economic values for locals. Its ecological water level to maintain the optimum salinity threshold was first calculated by applying a statistical analysis of relationships between the phytoplankton biomass, salinity and water level of the lake. Potential measures to preserve the ecological water level of the lake were subsequently evaluated based on a hydrological process analysis of the watershed. The results indicated that the optimum salinity threshold was 5.7 g/L. This value should be also valid for other endorheic salt lakes in this region. According to a function between the water storage and the mean water depth of this lake, the ecological water level was determined to be 10.28 m with an ecological water deficit of 2.5 × 10⁸ m³. A basin water balance analysis using the results proposed measures to maintain a sustainable ecological water level, including controlling local water consumption and infusing ecological water. The results of this study could be extrapolated to other similar conditions to provide guidance for policy-makers, so that better decisions could be hopefully forged to protect eco-hydrological processes of endorheic salt lakes in the Mongolian Plateau, as well as other comparable scenarios.