Abstract
Accelerated eutrophication poses a major threat to global water quality and represents a particular concern in Southeast Asia. The riparian countries of the Mekong River watershed are currently under threat from major episodes of accelerated eutrophication catalyzed by the combined effects of hydropower development and emerging climate change factors that can interact and profoundly affect ecosystem structure and function. Eleven dams are planned for the lower Mekong mainstream with scores more on its tributaries. Dams in the Mekong River watershed will interrupt the natural flow regime and alter the critical stoichiometric relationship of nutrients and other physical, chemical, and biological factors regulating biodiversity in the region. Imbalances in microbial communities can result and contribute to a trophic cascade that can lead to seriously degraded water quality, frequent occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms with lethal cyanotoxins, Trihalomethane (THM) precursors, taste and odor compounds, and changes in aquatic habitat that favor increased waterborne disease transmission including schistosomiasis, fasciolopsis, malaria, and dengue fever.
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Lanza, G.R. (2010). Accelerated Eutrophication in the Mekong River Watershed: Hydropower Development, Climate Change, and Waterborne Disease. In: Ansari, A., Singh Gill, S., Lanza, G., Rast, W. (eds) Eutrophication: causes, consequences and control. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9625-8_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9625-8_19
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