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Effects of human activities on the ecological changes of lakes in China

  • I. General Impacts of Human Population Growth on Inland Waters
  • (a) China, Nepal, Hong Kong, Japan
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Abstract

Lake ecosystems are greatly affected by anthropogenic activities due to population growth and the accompanying development of industry and agriculture. These anthropogenic activities include intensified exploitation of fisheries resources, reclamation of land from marshes of lakes, wastewater discharge, construction of water conservancy, and tourism etc. The negative ecological consequences in lakes caused by these factors are discussed in detail and are reflected in the following consequences: 1. depletion of fisheries resources and decrease in fisheries production; 2. changes in fish community structure (increased proportion of young and small individuals); 3. disappearance of some endemic species; and 4. eutrophication of lakes with blue-green algal blooms, elevation in chlorophyll pigment concentration, simplification of species composition, changes in zooplankton and benthos species and substitution of aquatic macrophytes originally dominant in lakes by planktonic algae.

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Zhang, Z.S., Mei, Z.P. Effects of human activities on the ecological changes of lakes in China. GeoJournal 40, 17–24 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222526

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222526

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