[Influences of Hydrological Scenarios on the Bioavailability, Fate, and Balance of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter in Lake Poyang].

Lake Poyang has significant differences in hydrological characteristics between the flood and dry seasons. Unraveling the optical composition, bioavailability, fate, and balance of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and organic carbon fluxes in Lake Poyang under different hydrological conditions can help provide advanced schemes on carbon cycling, the transfer and transformation of organic matter, and water resource management of the lake. Three fluorescent components, including a humic-like (C1), a tryptophan-like (C2), and a tyrosine-like (C3) component, were obtained using three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy coupled with parallel factor analysis. Prior to and after 28 days of laboratory biodegradation, the means of a254 and the terrestrial humic-like (C1) component in the flood season were both significantly higher than that in the dry season (t-test, P<0.01), indicating that the terrestrial humic-like (C1) component contributed importantly to the CDOM pool. The contribution percentages of protein-like components in the dry season were 81.7% of the summed fluorescent components of CDOM, indicating that there might be discharge of domestic wastewater from areas surrounding the lake in the dry season. The bioavailabilities of the humic-like (C1) component and DOC were 14.0% and 43.2%, respectively, in the dry season. This can be explained by a declined-dilution effect in the lake during the dry rather than in the flood season. We observed no significant difference in the bioavailability of protein-like components under different hydrological conditions. The bioavailability of C1 (i.e.,%ΔC1) showed a decreasing trend from the southern inflowing river mouths to the downstream northern outlet at Hukou in both the flood and dry seasons, indicating that the bioavailability of the C1 decreased following the migration of CDOM in the lake. In the dry season and flood season, Lake Poyang was the source of DOC with fluxes of 14.0×103 t·mon-1 and 1.4×103 t·mon-1, respectively, whereas CDOM fluxes in corresponding periods were the source and weak sink with corresponding fluxes of 9.3×1010 m3·(m·mon)-1 and 1.1×1010 m3·(m·mon)-1, respectively. Therefore, the lake released substantial organic matter to the downstream receiving waters during the dry season, whereas in the flood season, the higher water level in the Yangtze River resulted in a prolonged water residence time of the lake, and a fraction of CDOM was bio-degraded into inorganic nutrients, favoring the metabolisms and the eutrophication process of the lake ecosystem.

[Response of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter Composition to Different Hydrological Scenarios in Large Eutrophic Lake Taihu].

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is a fraction of dissolved organic matter that can strongly absorb light in the ultraviolet and blue regions and plays an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Unraveling the sources, optical composition, and corresponding spatial variabilities of CDOM can improve our understanding of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling in lakes and lake water quality management. CDOM spectral absorption and fluorescent excitation-emission matrices were measured to investigate the compositional dynamics of CDOM under different hydrological scenarios. Our results showed that the mean value of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration of (8.11±1.26) mg·L-1 in the rainy season was significantly higher than that in the dry season (3.53±1.19) mg·L-1 (t-test, P<0.01), whereas the mean spectral slope S275-295 of (20.89±1.90) µm-1 in the dry season was significantly greater than that in the rainy season (19.09±1.81) µm-1 (t-test, P<0.001). Three fluorescent components were identified using parallel factor analysis, and we further found that the dynamics of the three CDOM components were strongly influenced by hydrological conditions. Fluorescence intensity (Fmax) of the terrestrial humic-rich component C2 increased with increasing water levels and rainfall. Significant negative relationships were found between all three fluorescent components and dissolved oxygen (P<0.01), suggesting that all three components served as important substrates for microbial processing. Significant positive relationships were found between the terrestrial humic-rich C2 and tryptophan-like C1 and chlorophyll-a and chemical oxygen demand, indicating that anthropogenic inputs and algal degradation contributed significantly to the CDOM pool in Lake Taihu. We further found a significant positive relationship between DOC concentration and Fmax of terrestrial humic-rich C2 (r2=0.58, P<0.001), suggesting that DOC in Lake Taihu was primarily derived from allochthonous input.