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Effect of the ecological water conveyance project on environment in the Lower Tarim River, Xinjiang, China

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Abstract

The dynamic response of groundwater level is examined in traverse and lengthways directions. Take the Yinsu section for an example, we have simulated groundwater levels before and after water-conveyance every time and calculated the incidence of groundwater on the both sides of the river. It is noted that the effect keeps growing with the water-delivery times increasing, from 570 m after the first times to 3,334 m after the eighth times. In addition, this paper involves the temporal response of the natural vegetation to water conveyance, vegetation coverage, planted-species number, dominant position and species diversity from 2002 to 2006. The findings indicate that the positive influence of ecological water conveyance project (EWCP) on the ecosystem in the Lower Tarim River is a long-term process. In this paper, we try to calculate water required for recovery of damaged ecosystem by using data available. This project is likely the base of research on water demand and the reference of measures for research on ecological water conveyance effect.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 40 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, 830011, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaoxia Ye, Yaning Chen & Weihong Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology and Desert Environment, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 40 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, 830011, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaoxia Ye, Yaning Chen & Weihong Li

  3. Graduate school, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaoxia Ye

  4. College of Resources and Environmental Science, Xinjiang University, 14 Shengli Road, Urumqi, 830046, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Yan

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  1. Zhaoxia Ye
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  2. Yaning Chen
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  3. Weihong Li
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  4. Yan Yan
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Correspondence to Yaning Chen.

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Ye, Z., Chen, Y., Li, W. et al. Effect of the ecological water conveyance project on environment in the Lower Tarim River, Xinjiang, China. Environ Monit Assess 149, 9–17 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0178-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0178-9

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