Recovery of an endorheic lake after a decade of conservation efforts: Mediating the water conflict between agriculture and ecosystems

doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107107

	Recovery of an endorheic lake after a decade of conservation efforts: Mediating the water conflict between agriculture and ecosystems
	Zhang, Zhidong 2,3; Zheng, Yi 1,2; Han, Feng 1,2; Xiong, Rui 2,4; Feng, Lian 1,2
刊名	AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT
	2021-10-01
卷号	256 页码:9
关键词	Endorheic lake Arid region Agricultural irrigation Ecological restoration Environmental flow Groundwater
ISSN号	0378-3774
DOI	10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107107
通讯作者	Zheng, Yi(zhengy@sustech.edu.cn)
英文摘要	Widespread water losses in endorheic river basins have triggered ecological disasters. Agricultural irrigation has been one of the major drivers of water losses. It is imperative to address the water conflict between agriculture and ecosystems in arid regions, but significant gaps remain in knowledge of the water-agriculture-ecosystem nexus. The Heihe River Basin, China's second largest endorheic river basin, lost its terminal lake in the 1990 s due to a rapid decline in river discharge to the downstream area, but the lake has returned quickly since the early 2000 s. A system analysis on the recovery of the lake is performed in this study, fusing field observations, remote sensing data, and ecohydrological model simulations. The major findings show that the waning and waxing of the lake are driven remotely by agricultural irrigation in the midstream area, rather than the climate. A one-decade effort involving diversion restrictions in the middle reach, starting from 2000, has recovered the lake to the condition of the early 1970 s. Under historical climate conditions, saving extra irrigation water may change the recovery trajectory but would not significantly enhance the stability level. The aquifer connected to the lake acts as a buffer, receiving leakage from the lake under normal conditions while discharging water to the lake under dry conditions. The overall water efficiency of water conservation for lake restoration during 2002-2012 is estimated to be only 3.5% due to significant riverbed leakage in the downstream area. Nevertheless, leakage loss is beneficial to the recovery of groundwater and vegetation downstream. Whether the diversion restriction needs modification depends on the tradeoff between ecological services provided by the lake and its related ecosystems and economic benefit produced by the midstream agriculture. This study provides insight into agricultural water management and ecological conservation in endorheic river basins in a fast-changing global environment.
资助项目	National Natural Science Foundation of China[41807164] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[51961125203] ; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences[XDA20100104] ; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface WaterGroundwater Pollution Control
WOS关键词	HEIHE RIVER-BASIN ; SURFACE-WATER ; GROUNDWATER ; MANAGEMENT ; RESOURCES ; RESPONSES ; FLUCTUATION ; EVAPORATION ; ALLOCATION ; JUYAN
WOS研究方向	Agriculture ; Water Resources
语种	英语
出版者	ELSEVIER
WOS记录号	WOS:000696806100003
资助机构	National Natural Science Foundation of China ; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ; State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface WaterGroundwater Pollution Control
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://ir.igsnrr.ac.cn/handle/311030/165597]
专题	中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所
通讯作者	Zheng, Yi
作者单位	1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Shenzhen Municipal Engn Lab Environm IoT Technol, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China 2.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Environm Sci & Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China 3.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Geog Sci & Nat Resources Res, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 4.Hong Kong Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Civil & Environm Engn, Hong Kong, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Zhang, Zhidong,Zheng, Yi,Han, Feng,et al. Recovery of an endorheic lake after a decade of conservation efforts: Mediating the water conflict between agriculture and ecosystems[J]. AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT,2021,256:9.
APA	Zhang, Zhidong,Zheng, Yi,Han, Feng,Xiong, Rui,&Feng, Lian.(2021).Recovery of an endorheic lake after a decade of conservation efforts: Mediating the water conflict between agriculture and ecosystems.AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT,256,9.
MLA	Zhang, Zhidong,et al."Recovery of an endorheic lake after a decade of conservation efforts: Mediating the water conflict between agriculture and ecosystems".AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT 256(2021):9.