Ecological risk assessment of eutrophication in Songhua Lake, China

The Songhua Lake in the Northeast China is chosen as a study case in this paper. Monitoring of samples and analysis 18 indexes related to the eutrophication in the Songhua Lake had been conducted in 2002–2004. Ecological risk assessment methods are employed here. The study results showed that total phosphorus and total nitrogen were main risk factors to impact on the eutrophication of the Songhua Lake, and influence of the phosphorus on the lake eutrophication was larger than that of nitrogen. Algal growth potential test was also conducted to validate the results. High phosphorus and high nitrogen concentrations were mostly distributed in Huifahekou and Jiaohe sites of the Songhua Lake. Threshold values of total phosphorus, total nitrogen and Chl-a concentrations from dose-effective examination were 0.065 mg/L, 0.843 mg/L, and 11.90 μg/L, respectively. The probability of the eutrophication appeared in the Songhua Lake was 0.69, of them, risk-free type area was 19.21% of total lake area, slight risk type area was 30.10%, middle risk type area was 16.50%, heavy risk type area was 25.8%, hyper risk type area was 8.39%. In order to control the eutrophication in the Songhua Lake, maximum permission discharges of total phosphorus and total nitrogen to the lake would be 2,123.78, 7,018.82 t/a, respectively.