Spatiotemporal change patterns of urban lakes in China’s major cities between 1990 and 2015

China has experienced unprecedented urbanization in the past decades, resulting in dramatic changes in the physical, limnological, and hydrological characteristics of lakes in urban landscapes. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics in distribution and abundance of urban lakes in China remain poorly understood. Here, we characterized the spatiotemporal change patterns of urban lakes in China’s major cities between 1990 and 2015 using remote-sensing data and landscape metrics. The results showed that the urban lake landscape patterns have experienced drastic changes over the past 25 years. The total surface area of the urban lakes has decreased by 17,620.02?ha, a decrease of 24.22%, with a significant increase in the landscape fragmentation and a reduction in shape complexity. We defined three lake-shrinkage types and found that vanishment was the most common lake-shrinkage pattern, followed by edge-shrinkage and tunneling in terms of lake area. Moreover, we also found that urban sprawl was the dominant driver of the lake shrinkage, accounting for 67.89% of the total area loss, and the transition from lakes to cropland was also an important factor (19.86%). This study has potential for providing critical baseline information for government decision-making in lake resources management and urban landscape design.     

平流及层结在阿尔卑湖泊风成扩散问题中的作用

A semi-implicit semi-spectral hydrodynamic primitive equation model is used to study tracer diffusion in homogeneous and stratified lakes. Impulsively applied spatially uniform wind is applied in the long direction of a rectangular basin with constant depth and Lake Constance. Tracer mass is released at various locations of the free surface and its spreading under the action of dijfusion and advection is studied. We show that for homogeneous basins the tracer quickly spreads over the entire water depth. Inertial waves can also be detected in the tracer concentration. On the other hand for stratified waters the tracer mass is largely confined to the epilimnion with occasional penetration into the hypolimnion where large downwelling occurs. Here Kelvinand Poincar ''e-type wave dynamics is discernable in the tracer-concentratwn-time series, the former more conspicuously at nearshore, the latter at off-shore positions.     

Characteristics of Lake Breezes and Their Impacts on Energy and Carbon Fluxes in Mountainous Areas

In mountainous lake areas, lake–land and mountain–valley breezes interact with each other, leading to an "extended lake breeze". These extended lake breezes can regulate and control energy and carbon cycles at different scales. Based on meteorological and turbulent fluxes data from an eddy covariance observation site at Erhai Lake in the Dali Basin,southwest China, characteristics of daytime and nighttime extended lake breezes and their impacts on energy and carbon dioxide exchange in 2015 are investigated. Lake breezes dominate during the daytime while, due to different prevailing circulations at night, there are two types of nighttime breezes. The mountain breeze from the Cangshan Mountain range leads to N1 type nighttime breeze events. When a cyclonic circulation forms and maintains in the southern part of Erhai Lake at night, its northern branch contributes to the formation of N2 type nighttime breeze events. The prevailing wind directions for daytime, N1, and N2 breeze events are southeast, west, and southeast, respectively. Daytime breeze events are more intense than N1 events and weaker than N2 events. During daytime breeze events, the lake breeze decreases the sensible heat flux(Hs) and carbon dioxide flux(F_{CO_2}) and increases the latent heat flux(LE). During N1 breeze events, the mountain breeze decreases Hs and LE and increases F_{CO_2}. For N2 breeze events, the southeast wind from the lake surface increases Hs and LE and decreases suppress carbon dioxide exchange.     

Holocene climate evolution of the Ugii Nuur basin,Mongolia

In order to evaluate the Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Ugii Nuur basin, central Mongolia, investigations on chemical and mineralogical properties of lacustrine sediments were carried out on a 630 cm sediment core from lake Ugii Nuur. The interpretation of the record is based on a principal component analysis （PCA） of the elemental composition of the samples. The results show that lacustrine deposition started at 10.6 kyr BP. Low lake level conditions were identified during the Early Holocene （10.6-7.9 kyr BP）. The Mid Holocene （7.9-4.2 kyr BP） was characterized by generally higher lake levels and thus higher moisture supply, but it experienced strong climatic fluctuations. Arid conditions prevailed from 4.2-2.8 kyr BP and were followed by a stable, more humid phase until today.     

河西走廊东段湖泊旋回及其古气候意义

以河西走廊东段石羊河尾闾青土湖为例,通过对志云村剖面沉各气候记录的研究,证实季风边缘是年以上时间尺度的气候变化,具有暖湿,冷干的阶段性特征。自６０００ａＢＰ以来,河西走廊东段渗湖泊回经历了四次湖退和三次湖进过程。除最后一次湖退直至干涸受人类活动影响较大外,其它主要是气候阶段性变化的结果。     

Assessment of 2DH and pseudo‐3D modelling platforms in a large saline aquatic system: Lake Urmia,Iran

The main objective of this paper is to provide comparative quantitative examinations on the capabilities of two‐dimensional horizontal and pseudo‐three‐dimensional (3D) modelling approaches for simulating spatial and temporal variability of the flow and salinity in Lake Urmia, Iran. The water quality in the lake has been an environmentally important subject partly because this shallow hypersaline aquatic ecosystem is considered to be one of the largest natural habitats of a unique multicellular organism, Artemia urmiana. This brine shrimp is the major food source for many of the protected and rare shorebirds that visit the lake. A. urmiana can grow and survive in certain ranges of salinity, and their disappearance could lead to an alteration of existing equilibria. The lake has also experienced considerable man‐made changes during the past three decades. A newly built crossing embankment almost divided the lake into two northern and southern halves. A relatively small opening of 1.25 km in the new embankment provides water connections between the two halves. As a result, the flow and salinity regimes have been significantly changed. This might have had adverse serious impacts on the lake ecosystem. In the current study, the two‐dimensional horizontal hydrodynamic model has been found to provide reasonable predictions for the flow regime in the lake, whereas its salinity predictions have not been consistent with the field observations. The pseudo‐3D model has produced results fairly close to the salinity measurements and its temporal and spatial variations. The pseudo‐3D model has been used for evaluating the embankment effects on the lake hydrodynamics and on the salinity conditions. The effectiveness of introducing a different number or length of openings in the embankment for restoring the pre‐embankment conditions has also been examined. These remedy options have been found not to offer substantial improvements to the lake's existing ecosystem. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

四川省地震堰塞湖及其形成条件

据统计调查,从公元前26年至今的2千余年里,四川省至少有9次地震事件形成过堰塞湖.本文简述了这 9次地震堰塞湖及其灾害情况,并在此基础上分析总结出地震堰塞湖形成的充分条件为:所在地区地震烈度大于等于Ⅷ度,且堰塞湖的数量和规模与烈度值呈正相关关系;地形为高山峡谷江(河)段,两岸或一侧为高陡的岩壁或台地前缘;岩性条件为江(河)两岸或一侧存在较破碎的基岩或巨厚的松散堆积体.在满足上述充分条件下,若恰遇雨季或震后连降暴雨,则形成地震堰塞湖的可能性剧增,溃坝产生次生水灾的危险性也随之增大.     

The spatial distribution of sedimentary compounds and their environmental implications in surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur (Mongolian Altai)

Lake sediments are valuable natural archives to reconstruct paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental changes which consist of inorganic and organic sediment compounds of allochthonous origin from the catchment and of autochthonous production in the lake. However, for robust paleo-reconstructions it is important to develop a better understanding about sedimentation processes, the origin of inorganic and organic sediment compounds and their distribution within the lake. In this context, modern process studies provide important insights, although environmental and anthropological changes can affect the spatial distribution of sediment compounds through time. Therefore, in this study the spatial distribution of grain size and geochemical proxies in 52 surface sediment samples from Lake Khar Nuur, a small high-altitude lake in the Mongolian Altai with a small and anthropogenically used hydrological catchment, is investigated. The results show a distinct sediment focussing in the two deep basins of the lake, which therefore act as accumulation zones. In those accumulation zones, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (N) and their isotopic composition (δ¹³C_TOC, δ¹⁵N) as well as n-alkanes indicate that organic sediment compounds are a mixture of both allochthonous and autochthonous origin. While the recent catchment vegetation consists of grasses/herbs and the shrub Betula nana (L.) with distinct differences in their n-alkane homologue patterns, those differences are not reflected in the sediment surface samples which rather indicates that grass-derived n-alkanes become preferentially incorporated in the lake. Extensive anthropogenic activity such as grazing and housing in the southern part of the catchment causes soil erosion which is well reflected by high TOC, N and sulphur (S) contents and ¹⁵N depleted δ¹⁵N values at the central southern shore, i.e. increased allochthonous sediment input by anthropogenically-induced soil erosion. Overall, the surface sediments of Lake Khar Nuur origin from allochthonous and autochthonous sources and are focussed in the accumulation zones of the lake, while their distribution is both environmentally and anthropogenically driven.