In the past two weeks, Poyang Lake Basin and Yangtze River basin witnessed big floods with the heaviest rainfall since 1998. Poyang Lake, the biggest fresher water lake in China, is fed by five rivers within Jiangxi Province. The lake’s water flows into the Yangtze River which is the longest River in China, and the water then flows eastward to the ocean. On July 13, 2020, the water level of Poyang Lake rose to 22.6 meters breaking the historical peak 22.52-meter recorded in 1998. According the latest news, the floods disrupted over 5 million people’s lives and over 200,000 people needed urgent living assistance. The floods destroyed over 500,000 hectares of crops and caused the direct economic loss over 1 billion U.S. dollars.
Climate change is not only a big threat to human, but also a big challenge to the whole ecosystem, including some endangered species and their habitats. Poyang Lake is the biggest wintering area for cranes in China and even in East Asia. Four species of crane (Siberian Crane, White-naped Crane, Hooded Crane and Common Crane) are relying on the wetland of Poyang Lake. The annual and inter-annual hydrological pattern is an important factor that affect the survival of wintering waterbirds, such as cranes, Tundra Swan, and other species mainly feeding the tubers of aquatic plants.
In the summer leadership project, one of my job is identifying the relationship between water level (water depth) and tuber of Vallisneria based on the long term monitoring data collected by ICF and its partners since 1999. Understanding how water level affects the growth of tubers of Vallisneria – the Siberian crane’s major food source is helpful for conservation managers to make the prediction of tubers according to the real-time water level and make preparation as soon as possible for securing the food sources for waterbirds in the coming winter. Secondly, it is also useful for the nature reserve and related management departments to take actions for restoration of Vallisneria community in natural wetland.
So far, I have almost finished the data analysis for one important sub lake named Dahu Chi, where we recorded many cranes in the past. The DEM (Digital Elevation Model) for Dahu Chi was developed by the spatial analysis tool – Kriging in ArcGIS, which was used to convert the water level to water depth. According to the previous researches, the period from March to October is the growing season for Vallisneria. The preliminary results show a strong negative relation between average water depth from March to October and tuber average density. In the following two weeks, I will do further analysis and try to find out which months’ water depths have a great influence on the formation of tuber as well as the threshold value of water depth based on the existing data.
My second job is creating distribution maps for four species of crane in Poyang Lake basin and figure out the distribution hot spots for these species. Currently, I almost finished the data arrangement for the analysis and mapping with ArcGIS. The results of this job will provide information to ICF and its partners for making decision in the future, such as, where are the key areas for cranes in Poyang Lake in the past ten years? Are there some spatial gaps for the crane conservation?
Through the systematic training of EC program, I have strong confidence to conduct the summer leadership project and other relative projects in the future, such as making conservation plan, drafting fundraising proposal, conducting project evaluation, etc. The well-designed courses are helpful for the persons who are interested in environmental conservation, no matter you are the new people or the practitioners with experiences in the conservation realm. In term of the summer project, I think it provides a great opportunity for me to practice what I learned, especially the ways to think about environmental or conservation questions and spatial analysis tools with GIS.
During the summer project, I have communicated with Dr. Janet Silbernagel every two weeks and she gave me great suggestions for the data analysis. Additionally, the president of ICF Dr. Richard Beilfuss, the vice-president Spike Millington, my previous colleague Dr. Fengshan Li and Jeb Barzen, as well as our program faculty member Nathan and Meghan have involved. All of them have provided helpful guideline and advices for my summer project since the fall semester last year. Dorn Moore from ICF and Punwath from EOI program gave me some help for the GIS. My other colleagues Claire Mirande, Qian Yu, and Tao Liu also provided strong supports when I was studying in UW-Madison. I appreciate all of their help and supports.
I can’t image we will wrap up the program soon. I am happy to meet every one of my cohorts through the study of EC/EOI program. I’ll miss you and keep touch in the future!
The Nelson Institute: Environmental Professional Programs 2020 Leadership Projects 