There are many shallow lakes in the world. Many of them play an important socio-economic role as contributors to the drinking water supply, in flood attenuation, fisheries and recreation activities. Because of the current anthropogenic changes in the environment, such lakes rapidly respond to eutrophication and swamping. It is often hard to address these issues because many changes in the ecosystems of shallow lakes are associated with little studied physical processes. This interaction between the aquatic biota and the physical and chemical environment increases the complexity of shallow lake ecosystems.
Lake Taihu, located in the delta of Yangtze River, is a typical large, shallow eutrophic lake with area of 2338 km2 and maximum depth of less than 3m . This book provides basic data on various aspects of this lake and summarizes research work on the interaction between its ecology and physical limnology. It will be a reference for teachers and students of freshwater ecology and biology, the aquatic environment in general, and, most strikingly, for all those interested in physical limnology.
1 AN INTRODUCTION TO LAKE TAIHU; 1.1 HYDROGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE BASIN, Shuncai SUN and Rui MAO; 1.2 HYDROGRAPHY AND WATER RESOURCES, MAO Rui, XU Pengzhu and GAO Junfeng; 1.3 Pollution and Eutrophication, HUANG Wenyu, XU Gang, WU Qinglong and QIN Boqiang; 1.4 SWAMPING OF EASTERN TAIHU BAY, LI Wenchao; 2 OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF LAKE TAIHU AND RADIATIVE TRANSFER SIMULATION; 2.1 OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND THEIR ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE, ZHANG Yunlin; 2.2 SIMULATION OF RADIATIVE TRANSFER BETWEEN THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE WATER BODY, CAI Qiming and ZHANG Yunlin; 3 Hydrodynamics and THEIR effects on the aquatic ecosystem; 3.1 WAVE CHARACTERISTICS, HU Weiping; 3.2 Field InvestigationS and Analysis of Currents, QIN Boqiang and LUO Liancong; 3.3 MODELLING OF LAKE HYDRODYNAMICS, HU Weiping; 3.4 Effects of Hydrodynamics on the Aquatic Ecosystem, QIN Boqiang, HU Weiping and LUO Liancong; 4 SEDIMENT-WATER EXCHANGE AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE; 4.1 SEDIMENTATION RATE AND DISTRIBUTION OF SEDIMENT, ZHU Guangwei; 4.2 PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SEDIMENTS, ZHU Guangwei; 4.3 EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON NUTRIENT EXCHANGE AT THE SEDIMENT-WATER INTERFACE, ZHANG Lu and LI Wenchao; 4.4 CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF INTERNAL NUTRIENT LOADING, QIN Boqiang, ZHU Guangwe and, ZHANG Lu; 5 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BLUE-GREEN ALGAE IN LAKE TAIHU; 5.1 Effect of Alkaline Phosphatase on Algal Blooms, GAO Guang; 5.2 Relationship between the Lake Taihu Micro-ecosystem Structure and Algal Blooms, GAO Guang and YANG Liuyan; 6 THE LAKE ECOSYSTEM: STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT; 6.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHLOROPHYLL A AND PRIMARY PRODUCTION, YANG Dingtian, ZHANG Yunlin and CHEN Weimin; 6.2 Phytoplankton Community Structure, Succession and Response to the Environment, ZHOU Wanping and CHEN Weimin; 6.3 ANALYSIS OF THE ZOOPLANKTON, CHEN Weimin; 6.4 SPECIES COMPOSITION, SUCCESSION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE OF ZOOBENTHOS, CHEN Weimin; 6.5 Fish Composition and Fisheries, CHEN Weimin and WU Qinlong; 6.6 Structure and Succession of the Aquatic Vegetation, CHEN Weimin