Combating aggressive macrophyte encroachment on a typical Yangtze River lake: lessons from a long-term remote sensing study of vegetation

Overabundant growth of emergent lacustrine plants can cause biodiversity, ecosystem service and economic loss. The two-basined Wuchang Lake is a typical small shallow lake within the Yangtze River floodplain. Expansion of the emergent macrophyte Zizania latifolia at Wuchang Lower Lake (to 49 km 2 in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aquatic ecology 2017-03, Vol.51 (1), p.177-189
Main Authors: Jia, Qiang, Cao, Lei, Yésou, Hervé, Huber, Claire, Fox, Anthony David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Annual variations
Aquatic ecology
Aquatic plants
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Ecosystem services
Ecosystems
Encroachment
Fishing (Recreation)
Floodplains
Freshwater
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Lakes
Landsat
Landsat satellites
Life Sciences
Remote sensing
Rivers
Spring
Trophic status
Water levels
Zizania latifolia
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Summary:Overabundant growth of emergent lacustrine plants can cause biodiversity, ecosystem service and economic loss. The two-basined Wuchang Lake is a typical small shallow lake within the Yangtze River floodplain. Expansion of the emergent macrophyte Zizania latifolia at Wuchang Lower Lake (to 49 km 2 in area, c. 87.0% of Lower Lake) has increasingly denied the local community open water for fishing since the 1980s. To better understand the causes of these changes and potential remediation, we used annual Landsat imagery from 1975 to 2012 to determine the patterns of expansion between years as well as the effects of water levels in different seasons and trophic status on the annual extent of macrophytes in the Lower Lake. These analyses showed that: (1) Z. latifolia progressively covered the Lower Lake, while remaining confined to one inlet in the Upper Lake; (2) despite the generally increasing trend, there were obvious annual variations in area of Z. latifolia ; (3) variation of water level in spring contributed to between-year variation in area and was significantly negatively correlated with expansion in Z. latifolia . Based on these results, to reduce the expansion in Z. latifolia , we recommend maintaining spring Lower Lake water levels above at least at 11.6 m and better at 12 m, cutting shoots in June and July, with subsequent shoot removal in autumn.
ISSN:1386-2588
1573-5125
DOI:10.1007/s10452-016-9609-9