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Cyanobacterial bloom accumulation and dissipation frequently occur in Lake Taihu, a typically shallow, eutrophic lake due to wind wave disturbance. However, knowledge of the driving mechanisms of cyanobacterial blooms on underwater light attenuation is still limited. In this study, we collected a high-frequency in situ monitoring of the wind field, underwater light environment, and surface water quality to elucidate how cyanobacterial bloom accumulation and dissipation affect the variations in underwater light attenuation in the littoral zone of Lake Taihu. Results showed that cyanobacterial blooms significantly increased the diffuse attenuation coefficient of ultraviolet-B (K

The valley reservoirs service as a critical resource for society by providing drinking water, power generation, recreation, and maintaining biodiversity. Management and assessment of the water environment in valley reservoirs are urgent due to the recent eutrophication and water quality deterioration. As an essential component of the water body, total suspended matter (TSM) hinder the light availability to underwater and then affect the photosynthesis of aquatic ecosystem. We used long-term HJ-1A/B dataset to track TSM variation and elucidating the driving mechanism of valley reservoirs. Taking a typical deep-valley reservoir (Xin’anjing Reservoir) as our case study, we constructed a TSM model with satisfactory performance (R2, NRMSE, and MRE values are 0.85, 18.57%, and 20%) and further derived the spatial-temporal variation from 2009 to 2017. On an intra-annual scale, the TSM concentration exhibited a significant increase from 2.13 ± 1.10 mg L−1 in 2009 to 3.94 ± 0.82 mg L−1 in 2017. On a seasonal scale, the TSM concentration in the entire reservoir was higher in the summer (3.36 ± 1.54 mg L−1) and autumn (2.74 ± 0.82 mg L−1) than in the spring (1.84 ± 1.27 mg L−1) and winter (1.44 ± 2.12 mg L−1). On a monthly scale, the highest and lowest mean TSM value occurred in June (4.66 ± 0.45 mg L−1) and January (0.67 ± 1.50 mg L−1), and the monthly mean TSM value increased from January to June, then dropped from June to December. Combing HJ-1A/B-derived TSM, climatological data, basin dynamic, and morphology of the reservoir, we elucidated the driving mechanism of TSM variation. The annual increase of TSM from long-term HJ-1A/B data indicated that the water quality of Xin’anjiang Reservoir was decreasing. The annual increase of phytoplankton jointed with an increase of built-up land and decrease of forest land in the basin may partially be responsible for the increasing trend in TSM. This study suggested that combining the long-term remote sensing data and in situ data could provide insight into the driving mechanism of water quality dynamic and improve current management efforts for local environmental management.

Chlorophyll-a (Chla) is an important indicator of water quality and eutrophication status. Monitoring Chla concentration (C Chla ) and understanding the interactions between C Chla and related environmental factors (hydrological and meteorological conditions, nutrients enrichment, etc.) are necessary for assessing and managing water quality and eutrophication. An acceptable Landsat 8 OLI-based empirical algorithm for C Chla has been developed and validated, with a mean absolute percentage error of 14.05% and a root mean square error of 1.10 μg L-1. A time series of remotely estimated C Chla was developed from 2013 to 2015 and examined the relationship of C Chla to inflow rate, rainfall, temperature, and sunshine duration. Spatially, C Chla values in the riverine zone were higher than in the transition and lacustrine zones. Temporally, mean C Chla value were ranked as spring > summer > autumn > winter. A significant positive correlation [Pearson correlation coefficient (r) = 0.88, p

Natural surface drinking water sources with the increasing chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) have profound influences on the aquatic environment and drinking water safety. Here, this study investigated the spatiotemporal variations of CDOM in Fengshuba Reservoir and its catchments in China. Twenty-four surface water samples, 45 water samples (including surface water, middle water, and bottom water), and 15 pore water samples were collected from rivers, reservoir, and sediment of the reservoir, respectively. Then, three fluorescent components, namely two humic-like components (C1 and C2) and a tryptophan-like component (C3), were identified from the excitation-emission matrix coupled with parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC) for all samples. For spatial distributions, the levels of CDOM and two humic-like components in the reservoir were significantly lower than those in the upstream rivers (p

High concentrations of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) are terrestrially derived from upstream tributaries to Lake Taihu, China, and are influenced by hydrological conditions of the upstream watershed. To investigate how the dynamics of CDOM in Lake Taihu are influenced by upstream inflow runoff, four sampling cruises, differing in hydrological conditions, were undertaken in the lake and its three major tributaries, rivers Yincun, Dapu, and Changdou. CDOM absorption, fluorescence spectroscopy, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and stable isotope δ13C and δ15N measurements were conducted to characterize the dynamics of CDOM. The mean absorption coefficient a(350) collected from the three river profiles (5.15 ± 1.92 m−1) was significantly higher than that of the lake (2.95 ± 1.88 m−1), indicating that the upstream rivers carried a substantial load of CDOM to the lake. This finding was substantiated by the exclusively terrestrial signal exhibited by the level of δ13C (−26.23 ± 0.49‰) of CDOM samples collected from the rivers. Mean a(350) and COD in Lake Taihu were significantly higher in the wet season than in the dry season (t test, p