How Water Level Fluctuations Impact Reservoir Eutrophication: New Insights From Decade‐Long Daily Monitoring in a Mega‐Reservoir
- 1Institute of Hydrobiology Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan P. R. China
- 2Hubei Provincial Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center Wuhan P. R. China
- 3School of Geography and Water@Leeds University of Leeds Leeds UK
Abstract
Reservoirs provide water supply, clean energy, and numerous functions for human well‐being. However, reservoir construction often leads eutrophication due to altered hydrological conditions, presenting a major global environmental challenge. Hydrodynamic regulation is an effective measure for controlling reservoir eutrophication, yet current knowledge is largely based on the hydrodynamics‐water quality‐phytoplankton (HWP) pathway. This pathway also forms the basis for widely used hydrodynamic models simulating eutrophication processes, such as CE‐QUAL‐W2 and Delft3D. Despite its widespread application, the mechanisms and pathways beyond the classical HWP pathway that influence phytoplankton remain poorly explored. To address this gap, empirical dynamic modeling and Bayesian network were employed to construct causal networks illustrating how water level fluctuations influence phytoplankton dynamics, using 10‐year continuous daily data from the Three Gorges Reservoir. Our findings reveal that water level fluctuations impact water temperature, turbidity, and nitrogen concentrations, thereby influencing phytoplankton biomass through the classical HWP pathway. More importantly, the results indicate the presence of a possible non‐HWP pathway through top‐down control, most likely driven by zooplankton predation. This pathway exerts a stronger influence on phytoplankton biomass than the classical HWP pathway, suggesting an important mechanism through which water level fluctuations affect reservoir eutrophication has previously been overlooked. These findings expand our understanding of hydrodynamic impacts on phytoplankton and underscore the importance of non‐classical HWP pathways in determining eutrophication, offering new insights for reservoir management and the development of more robust hydrodynamic models.
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BibTeX
@article{ye2026water,
title = {{How Water Level Fluctuations Impact Reservoir Eutrophication: New Insights From Decade‐Long Daily Monitoring in a Mega‐Reservoir}},
author = {Lin Ye and Xiaoguang Zhang and Jing Xiong and Lu Tan and Jun Xu and Qinghua Cai and Lee E. Brown},
journal = {Water Resources Research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1029/2025wr043296},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025wr043296},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - How Water Level Fluctuations Impact Reservoir Eutrophication: New Insights From Decade‐Long Daily Monitoring in a Mega‐Reservoir
AU - Lin Ye
AU - Xiaoguang Zhang
AU - Jing Xiong
AU - Lu Tan
AU - Jun Xu
AU - Qinghua Cai
AU - Lee E. Brown
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
JO - Water Resources Research
DO - 10.1029/2025wr043296
UR - https://doi.org/10.1029/2025wr043296
AB - Reservoirs provide water supply, clean energy, and numerous functions for human well‐being. However, reservoir construction often leads eutrophication due to altered hydrological conditions, presenting a major global environmental challenge. Hydrodynamic regulation is an effective measure for controlling reservoir eutrophication, yet current knowledge is largely based on the hydrodynamics‐water quality‐phytoplankton (HWP) pathway. This pathway also forms the basis for widely used hydrodynamic models simulating eutrophication processes, such as CE‐QUAL‐W2 and Delft3D. Despite its widespread application, the mechanisms and pathways beyond the classical HWP pathway that influence phytoplankton remain poorly explored. To address this gap, empirical dynamic modeling and Bayesian network were employed to construct causal networks illustrating how water level fluctuations influence phytoplankton dynamics, using 10‐year continuous daily data from the Three Gorges Reservoir. Our findings reveal that water level fluctuations impact water temperature, turbidity, and nitrogen concentrations, thereby influencing phytoplankton biomass through the classical HWP pathway. More importantly, the results indicate the presence of a possible non‐HWP pathway through top‐down control, most likely driven by zooplankton predation. This pathway exerts a stronger influence on phytoplankton biomass than the classical HWP pathway, suggesting an important mechanism through which water level fluctuations affect reservoir eutrophication has previously been overlooked. These findings expand our understanding of hydrodynamic impacts on phytoplankton and underscore the importance of non‐classical HWP pathways in determining eutrophication, offering new insights for reservoir management and the development of more robust hydrodynamic models.
SN - 1944-7973
SN - 0043-1397
ER -