| Abstract: | Water level fluctuation of is an important ecological character of lakes in monsoon climate zone.It is the key driver to seasonal change of the wetlands and associated habitats,which provide vital inhabiting conditions for different species in summer and winter,or,wet season and dry season.Due the hydrologic regime changes in the recent years after the operation of Three Gorges Dam,in 2012,the government of Hunan province proposed Chenglingji Hydraulic Project,aiming at water level control in dry season at Chenglingji,where the outlet of Dongting Lake located.Through different operations on water retreat process,five scenarios on the water level control from 21 m to 24 m were set in the plan.The potential ecological impacts of the project are under enormous public concern.To analyze potential impacts from different scenarios of water level control on the wetlands,this paper studied the topography of Dongting Lake bed and wetlands in dry season,by using Digital Elevation Model(DEM)and 15 images from HJ satellite and 1 image from Landsat TM.The wetlands at water levels of 19 m to 27 m were analyzed.The study revealed that there were 4 terrain steps on Dongting Lake bed from the West Dongting Lake to East Dongting Lake.Water level control at Chenglingji would increase area of open water in East Dongting Lake and Hengling Lake areas,while its effect on South Dongting Lake and West Dongting Lake areas due to higher terrain was weaker.Particularly,the area percentages of South Dongting Lake area did not change with water level fluctuation,due to its 2 elevation steps.The area percentages of various types of the wetlands in Dongting Lake area during the processes of water level rising and retreating were quite different,even in the relatively close water level interval.The retreating area of open water in autumn was larger than that during the spring flooding.The 23 m was the key water level,a turning point of the area change of the wetlands in Dongting Lake area.Areas of open water,mudflat,meadows and their percentages changed significantly at water levels above 23 meters,with increasing of open water area and shrinking of meadow area,their areas would decrease 30 000 ha.As the key habitats for wintering geese,the area of meadows was from near 70 000 ha to 10 000 ha.Among 5 scenarios,the impact of the scenario at 21 m elevation on wetlands was the weakest.However,water level dropping was still postponed than that of natural hydrological process in the scenarios.It resulted in longer inundation of large area of lakebed at elevation of 22-23 m,increasing habitats for aquatic biodiversity but reducing area of the meadows,where is the key habitat for wintering geese.All the other water level control scenarios would cause large area of inundation of lakebed in dry season and dramatic change of wetlands.To maintain the natural wetlands in Dongting Lake area,the Chenglingji Hydraulic Project should be considered in a more cautious way and further researches were needed on the response of aquatic biodiversity and wintering water birds. |
