The Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Water Quality and Main Controlling Factors of Algal Blooms in Tai Lake, China

Ruichen Xu, Yong Pang, Zhibing Hu and Xiaoyan Hu
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Ruichen Xu: College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Yong Pang: College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Zhibing Hu: College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Xiaoyan Hu: College of Earth Science, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: Taking Tai Lake in China as the research area, a 3D water environment mathematical model was built. Combined with the LHS and Morris uncertainty and sensitivity analysis methods, the uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), dissolved oxygen (DO), and chlorophyll a (Chl-a) were carried out. The main conclusions are: (1) The performance assessment of the 3D water environment mathematical model is good (R 2 and NSE > 0.8) and is suitable for water quality research in large shallow lakes. (2) The time uncertainty study proves that the variation range of Chl-a is much larger than that of the other three water quality parameters and is more severe in summer and autumn. (3) The spatial uncertainty study proves that Chl-a is mainly present in the northwest lake area (heavily polluted area) and the other three water quality indicators are mainly present in the center. (4) The sensitivity results show that the main controlling factors of DO are ters (0.15) and kmsc (0.12); those of TN and TP are tetn (0.58) and tetp (0.24); and those of Chl-a are its own growth rate (0.14), optimal growth temperature (0.12), death rate (0.12), optimal growth light (0.11), and TP uptake rate (0.11). Thus, TP control is still the key treatment method for algal blooms that can be implemented by the Chinese government.

Keywords: Tai Lake; water quality; uncertainty analysis; sensitivity analysis; algae (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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