Impacts of water level fluctuations on detritus accumulation in Lake Baiyangdian, China

Abstract

Decreases in water level could stimulate emergent plant growth and accelerate lake terrestrialization. To explore the impacts of hydrological variability on detritus accumulation in Lake Baiyangdian, a process-based ecosystem model was applied to investigate how emergent plants affect lake terrestrialization under changing water levels. Results of this study suggested that the accumulation of Phragmites australis (P. australis) detritus is one of the main factors that promote terrestrialization, accounting for 1.8mmyr-1 of sediment increase in the lake from 2001 to 2010. Water level and temperature were the primary drivers of detritus accumulation. The impacts of water level variability on d..