Taihu Lake region is one of the most industrialized areas in China, and the surface water is progressively susceptible to anthropogenic pollution. The physicochemical parameters of surface water quality were determined at 20 sampling sites in Taihu Lake region, China in spring, summer, autumn, and winter seasons of 2005-2006 to assess the effect of human activities on the surface water quality. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to identify characteristics of the water quality in the studied water bodies. PCA extracted the first three principal components (PCs), explaining 80.84% of the total variance of the raw data. Especially, PC1 (38.91%) was associated with NH 4 -N, total N, soluble reactive phosphorus, and total P. PC2 (22.70%) was characterized by NO 3 -N and temperature. PC3 (19.23%) was mainly associated with pH and dissolved organic carbon. CA showed that streams were influenced by urban residential subsistence and livestock farming contributed significantly to PC1 throughout the year. The streams influenced by farmland runoff contributed most to PC2 in spring and winter compared with other streams. PC3 was affected mainly by aquiculture in spring, rural residential subsistence in summer, and livestock farming in fall and winter seasons. Further analyses showed that farmlands contributed significantly to nitrogen pollution of Taihu Lake, while urban residential subsistence and livestock farming also polluted water quality of Taihu Lake in rainy season. The results would be helpful for the authorities to take sound actions for an effective management of water quality in Taihu Lake region.
XU HaYANG Lin-ZhangZHAO Geng-MaoJIAO Jia-GuoYIN Shi-XueLIU Zhao-Pu
Irrigation with various dilutions of seawater can act as an alternate water resource and thus plays an important role in saving freshwater resources as well as promoting agriculture in the coastal semi-arid areas of the North China Plain. Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) grown in a field experiment was irrigated with seawater diluted with freshwater from 2001 to 2003 to determine the feasibility of seawater irrigation in the Laizhou area. For treatments of CK (non-irrigation) along with seawater concentrations of 25%, 50%, and 75%, total dissolved solid (TDS) in the non-irrigated soil significantly increased (P ≤ 0.05) in both 2002 and 2003 and was 1.3 times higher in 2003 than in 2001. In the 25% and 50% seawater concentration treatments, TDS in 2001 was significantly greater (P ≤ 0.05) than CK; however, TDS in these two treatments decreased by 34.9% and 40.1%, respectively, in 2003 compared with 2001. The sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) remained below 10 mmol^1/2 L^-1/2, indicating that alkalization was low with seawater irrigation. In 2001 and 2002, compared to CK and the irrigation treatment with 75% seawater, irrigation with 25% and 50% seawater increased the yields of Jerusalem .artichoke. This meant that Jerusalem artichoke could be safely grown in salt-affected land of Laizhou area with 25% and 50% seawater irrigation.
ZHAO Geng-Mao LIU Zhao-Pu CHEN Ming-Da GUO Shi-Wei