W-BB-15
10 Years Anniversary of the Three Gorges Reservoir, China: Research Progress and Prospects On Aquatic Ecosystem
CAI Qinghua
(State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China)
Abstract:
Impounded from June of 2003, the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) is now 10 years old. It experienced 3 impounding stages with highest water level of 139m, 156m and 175m a.s.l respectively. The TGR came into the normal operation stage since the year 2010, with an annual water level fluctuation of 30 m. Reservoir limnology can provide the scientific basis for environment-friendly dam construction and reservoir sustainable management. On the basis of long-term monitoring and investigation on the TGR ecosystem for 10 years, this research described the current status of aquatic ecosystem in the reservoir, and elaborated the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of water environmental dynamics, longitudinal zonation and biological community structure, vertical distribution, and forming and tendency of algal bloom of the TGR. The early warning of algal bloom and eco-hydrological regulation mechanism were also analyzed in the present study. Two perspectives of ecological research on TGR were finally pointed out in the paper: 1) Limnological observation and research in the large reservoir should have long-term strategy; 2) Recent researches should focus on the quantification of hydrodynamics mechanism on algal bloom, and the coupling of early warning models of algal bloom and eco-hydraulic regulation platform.