{"id":34685,"date":"2017-03-22T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-22T14:02:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T14:02:46","slug":"9685-a-tale-of-five-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/9685-a-tale-of-five-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"A tale of five lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">China\u2019s rivers, lakes and seas are an important part of the country\u2019s cultural geography, with&nbsp;the phrase \u201cfive lakes, four seas\u201d meaning&nbsp;something akin to \u201cfrom all over the country\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But most of the country&#8217;s lakes are in a state of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinanews.com\/gn\/2014\/01-22\/5766095.shtml?_fin\">crisis<\/a>. China has a much smaller freshwater resource by population than many other nations, and those resources are both shrinking and threatened by pollution. Not only is China the world\u2019s largest user of fertilizers, its water-polluting industries such as textiles and paper-making are huge, and both agriculture and industry have enormous water footprints.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">Here, we include a couple of China\u2019s traditional \u201cfive lakes\u201d in the central and eastern parts of the country, but also include others that may not have the same cultural importance but which remain valuable ecosystems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uploads.knightlab.com\/storymapjs\/4010babc93078401bb9bab8303d75b83\/five\/draft.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/2359\/Screen_Shot_2017-03-22_at_13.00.06_meitu_2.jpg\" style=\"width: 560px; height: 307px;\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span><span class=\"caption\">Click image above to explore China&#8217;s lakes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Poyang Lake \u2013 to dam or not to dam<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite being known as China\u2019s largest freshwater lake, Poyang has no fixed size. The lake is huge, shallow and connected to the Yangtze, which means that every year its size fluctuates in line with the height of the river, shifting wildly from between 3,000 to only 100 square kilometres. For this reason it is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/article\/show\/single\/ch\/1846-Crisis-at-Poyang-Lake\">known<\/a> for becoming a wide expanse of clear water when in flood but little more than a river in the dry season.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">But though Poyang shrinks during the dry season, it still provides a crucial habitat for migrating birds, which arrive here in autumn from Siberia to rest over the winter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yet for a decade now, Poyang has been experiencing earlier and longer dry seasons, and unusually low water levels. In extreme cases the locals have seen water supplies cut off entirely. Climate change is one reason, but the role of the Three Gorges Dam, the world\u2019s biggest hydropower project, has also come in for scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jxsl.gov.cn\/id_6a83088d95678f9f0cf3ef49f5ba511b\/news.shtml\">office<\/a> in charge of the lake\u2019s water management system plans to build a barrier between the Yangtze and Poyang Lake to address the problem. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.org.cn\/article\/show\/single\/ch\/9536-Damming-China-s-largest-freshwater-lake-could-harm-fragile-ecosystem\">opponents say<\/a> this will block migrating fish, and higher water levels will cause problems for the birds \u2013 resulting in ecological disaster. There is also a question over whether or not retaining more water in the lake will affect water security for cities downstream. The debate looks set to continue.<br \/>\n<span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">\u200b<br \/>\n<strong>Qinghai Lake \u2013 back from rock bottom<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">\u200b<br \/>\nQinghai Lake is a saltwater lake situated in the north-east of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and is China\u2019s largest. But unlike other lakes that are shrinking, Qinghai seems to be recovering, with water levels increasing in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The provincial authorities have monitored the lake area since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinanews.com\/gn\/2014\/07-24\/6423678.shtml\">1974<\/a>, finding that in 2005 it had shrunk by 253 square kilometres, to 5.67% of its size in 1974. <em>chinadialogue<\/em> expressed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/blog\/668-China-s-largest-lake-may-vanish-in-2-years\/ch\">concern<\/a> about the risk to the lake a decade ago. But since 2005 the lake has, unexpectedly, been recovering. By 2016 it was almost back to its 1974 size, the largest recorded.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">In February 2017 a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/politics\/2017-02\/23\/c_129493704.htm\">provincial survey<\/a> found the environment of the Qinghai Lake basin was well protected. The management bureau for the Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve says that alongside interventions, such as returning farmland to forests and pastures and restoration of vegetation, another important factor is increased precipitation and glacier melt resulting from climate change. It\u2019s ironic that while changing weather patterns are threatening low-lying islands and coastal areas, China\u2019s largest lake is actually benefiting.<br \/>\n<span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">\u200b<br \/>\n<strong>Ulunsuhai Nur<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Situated in Inner Mongolia, Ulunsuhai Nur is home to 200 types of bird and is the highest wetland at this latitude. Strictly speaking, the lake is manmade, and was formed by efforts to redirect water from the Yellow River. Today, 80% of its water is directed through agricultural irrigation systems nearby, with the rest coming from rainfall.<\/p>\n<p>From 1965 to 1975 local people constructed a modern drainage system between the Yellow River, farmland and Ulunsuhai Nur, to ensure water from irrigation would flow quickly into the lake where vegetation and microorganisms would break down fertilizer run-off. The \u201cpurified\u201d water is then returned to the Yellow River.<\/p>\n<p>That system of irrigation and drainage made the plains around Ulunsuhai Nur one of northern China\u2019s most important agricultural regions, while the recovery of water from agriculture made the lake \u2013 which should be arid \u2013 a paradise for birds and a tourist hot spot.<\/p>\n<p>But the system is today on the brink of failure. Experts point out that fertilizer use in China has increased <a href=\"https:\/\/wap.sciencenet.cn\/blogview.aspx?id=1006187\">55-fold<\/a> in 40 years, and Ulunsuhai Nur can no longer cope. For about ten years the lake has seen <a href=\"https:\/\/info.ep.hc360.com\/2009\/06\/05094259643.shtml\">algal blooms<\/a> during some summers resulting from eutrophication. This has worsened the water quality and affected the entire ecosystem, from birds to fish.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\"><strong>Lop Nur \u2013 the Sea of Death<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Look down from the air and you can see the ear-like shape of Lop Nur, once a large lake but now dried up. In the 1920s it was estimated to be 3,000 square kilometres in size \u2013 twice as large as Beijing today. In 1959, it was still possible to sail a boat on it. It\u2019s unclear when the lake dried up exactly, but the region is incredibly arid and once the rivers stopped flowing, Lop Nur, which was only three or four metres&nbsp;deep, may have dried up in a matter of years.<\/p>\n<p>The lake has always had a legendary quality. Sven Anders Hedin, a Swedish explorer in the early <span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">20<\/span>th century, \u201cdiscovered\u201d it while travelling through the desert. Archaeologists later excavated relics and determined that it would have been an important oasis and stop on the Silk Road. It\u2019s also claimed the lives of a number of explorers, including two famous Chinese adventurers, Peng Jiamu and Yu Chunshun who went missing around Lop Nur in 1980 and 1996.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">Lop Nur is now just another expanse of desert. In summer it reaches extreme temperatures and not a bird is to be seen in the sky. It is now known as the Sea of Death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lake Tai&nbsp;\u2013<\/strong><span><strong> the 100 billion yuan clean-up<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The beauty of Lake Tai has long been praised in Chinese poems and songs. But by 2007 that beauty was all but gone. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/article\/show\/single\/ch\/4767-Long-struggle-for-a-cleaner-Lake-Tai-\">algal bloom<\/a>, poor water quality and a foul smell left residents of nearby Wuxi without clean drinking water for a week, resulting in widespread media coverage and panic-buying of bottled water.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">Lake Tai lies between Jiangsu and Zhejiang, two of China\u2019s most developed provinces. The Lake Tai basin covers 0.4% of China\u2019s land mass, yet accounts for 8% of its GDP. The area is China\u2019s most urbanised \u2013 and produces nine times more pollutants per unit of area than the national average. The pollutants pouring into the lake resulted in eutrophication, and then algal blooms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The costs to local government were huge. As of 2014, government at all levels had <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.chinanews.com\/cj\/2014\/01-14\/5736405.shtml\">spent<\/a> a total of 96 billion yuan (US$14 billion) cleaning the lake, with another 116.4 billion (US$17 billion) to come.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-b35db36a-f60e-9540-be25-9690ca26c415\">But the approach to cleaning up the lake has also established a new model in China for similar problems elsewhere, making it possible to trade the right to release waste water. Jiangsu was also one of the first provinces to set up an environmental credit rating system for businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Water quality has improved in recent years, but the risk of algal blooms remains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To mark World Water Day we take a look at some of China\u2019s most culturally important but environmentally threatened lakes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2674,"featured_media":59413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[764],"tags":[537,554,600],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-34685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-ecosystems","tag-hydropower","tag-trade"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ 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