Can Water Hyacinth Clean Highly Polluted Waters —A Short Paper for Discussion英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Environmental Protection, 2012, 3, 340-341 /10.4236/jep.2012.34043 Published Online April 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) Can Water Hyacinth Clean Highly Polluted Waters? —A Short Paper for Discussion Hucai Zhang The Laboratory of Plateau Lake Ecology Global Change, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China. Email: hucaizhang@ Received January 31 , 2012; revised March 1 , 2012; accepted March 31 , 2012 st st st ABSTRACT Recently local government and environmental protection authorities in China have turned to the water hyacinth, one of the world’s worst aquatic weeds, to reduce nutrient concentrations in highly eutrophic lake waters, especially in Lake Dian in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province. Although we do not reject using water hyacinth to reduce lake eutro- phication, it is not a complete solution. In our view, a more complete solution requires a holistic consideration of wa- tershed or drainage characteristics, and a solid understanding of the limnological features of individual lakes. Before the bio-geochemistry and toxicological effects of water hyacinth be thoroughly understood, applying it widely to lake res- toration and overstating its practical value is not only irresponsible but also dangerous. Keywords: Water Hyacinth; Lake Eutrophication; Lake Dian; SW China There have been years of struggle and hundreds of mil- lions of RMB Yuan spent to restore hypereutrophic lakes in China, such as Lake Tai or Taihu in southeastern [1,2] and Lake Dian or Dianchi in southwestern China. Re- cently local government and environmental protection authorities have turned to the water hyacinth to try to reduce nutrient concentrations in eutrophic lake waters (Figure 1). This action has stirred a fierce public debate, as supporters vehemently embrace this approach to re- s