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Temporal changes in wetland plant communities with decades of cumulative water pollution in two plateau lakes in China’s Yunnan Province

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An Erratum to this article was published on 22 June 2018

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Abstract

Wetland plant communities in the plateau lakes of Yunnan Province, China, have decreased significantly over the past decades. To better understand this degradation, we analyzed the processes and characteristics of changes in wetland plant communities in two of the largest lakes in Yunnan Province, Dianchi and Erhai lakes. We collected records of native and alien plant communities in the two lakes from literature published from the 1950s to current period. We calculated plant community types and their area in some historical periods when related data were reported, and analyzed the relationship between changes in plant communities and water pollution. In Dianchi Lake, 12 community types of native plant communities, covering over 80% of the surface in the 1950s and 1960s, were reduced to four types covering 2.4% by the late 2000s. Alien plant communities started to appear in the lake in the late 1970s, and have since come to cover 4.9% of the lake surface, thereby becoming dominant. In Erhai Lake, 16 community types of native plant communities, covering 47.1% of the lake surface in the late 1970s, declined to 10 community types, covering 9.3% of the surface, by the late 2000s. Alien plant communities appeared in the middle 1980s, and at present cover 0.7% of the surface area. It was indicated that changes in plant communities were significant related to water eutrophication. The area occupied by native and alien plant communities was, respectively, negatively and positively related to the content of nutrients in water. This showed lacustrine pollution played an important role in native plant loss and alien plant invasion in the two plateau lakes.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.31560092, U0933601), National Scientific and Technological Basic Work of China (No.2012FY110300), Science Fund of China’s Yunnan Government (Grant No. 2015BB018, 2009CC024), and the State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China (Grant No. P2015-KF11). Dr. Tobias Marczewski contributed to the first revision of the original manuscript and Prof. LI Mao-biao helped with the final revisions and proof-reading of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of the State Forestry Administration on Conservation of Rare, Endangered and Endemic Forest Plants, Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650201, China

    Si-hai Wang

  2. National Plateau Wetlands Research Center, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, 650224, China

    Si-hai Wang, Chao Wu, De-rong Xiao & Juan Wang

  3. State Key laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China

    Si-hai Wang

  4. Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Cultivation and Exploitation of Forest Plants, Yunnan Academy of Forestry, Kunming, 650201, China

    Juan Wang

  5. Faculty of Ecotourism, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, 650224, China

    Xi-ping Cheng & Fang-bin Guo

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  1. Si-hai Wang
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  2. Chao Wu
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  3. De-rong Xiao
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  4. Juan Wang
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Correspondence to Juan Wang.

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Wang, Sh., Wu, C., Xiao, Dr. et al. Temporal changes in wetland plant communities with decades of cumulative water pollution in two plateau lakes in China’s Yunnan Province. J. Mt. Sci. 14, 1350–1357 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-016-4037-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-016-4037-9

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