xi's moments
Home | Innovation

Chinese scientists monitor trophic state of global inland waters

Xinhua | Updated: 2018-10-11 13:49

The Nanhu Lake blurs over the horizons of the clear sky in autumn in Zhouzhuang, Jiangsu province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

BEIJING -- Chinese scientists have developed a new remote sensing approach to assess the trophic state of global inland waters.

Scientists from the Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences assessed the trophic states of 2,058 large inland water bodies distributed around the world using remote sensing data in the summer of 2012.

During the assessment, they analyzed spatial distribution and produced a trophic state map of the world's large inland water bodies.

Results show that eutrophic inland waters are concentrated in Central Africa, eastern Asia, and mid-northern and southeastern North America, while oligotrophic inland waters are concentrated in plateau regions in Central Asia and southern South America.

Inland waters provide water resources, fishery resources and energy. They also play an important role in global climate change as well as biodiversity conservation.

In recent decades, the eutrophication of inland waters has become a global environmental issue. Some lakes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients have induced excessive growth of plants and algae, resulting in oxygen depletion of the water body.

The research was published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.

Global Edition
BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349