Investigating Ugandan crater lake water quality and hydrology using novel monitoring data sets.

使用新颖的监测数据集调查乌干达火山口湖水质和水文。

• 批准号: NE/T014466/1
• 负责人: Matthew Jones
• 金额: $ 1.17万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FT014466%2F1
• 关键词: Investigating; Ugandan; crater; lake; water

NERC: Laura Hunt: NE/L002604/1Tropical lakes provide important water resources and ecosystem services to their communities, but their response to climate and environmental change is poorly understood. In western Uganda more than 80 crater lakes provide critical resources to rural communities. These include household water use, and resource for crops and livestock, in addition to provision of opportunities for artisanal fisheries and ecotourism. Previous work (e.g. Mills, 2009; Saulnier-Talbot et al., 2014) has shown that these crater lakes and their catchments are under increasing pressure from human impacts, such as deforestation, and climate change. By understanding the response of the crater lakes to past environmental changes across various timescales, it is possible to predict future changes in their water balance and water quality, thus helping inform sustainable management of surface water supplies (Mills et al., 2017). Long-term monitoring data from tropical lakes is sparse, and where they do exist, they tend to be discontinuous and cover relatively short time periods (<20 years), however the Kibale Fish Project (led by Prof. Lauren Chapman from McGill University in Canada) has routinely monitored Lake Nkuruba since 1991, making this small Ugandan lake one of the best-monitored lakes in Africa. The proposed research project will collate, organise, and digitise lake pH, conductivity and rainfall data collected by this project, creating the longest record of water quality measurements from eastern Africa. Compared to many other lakes in the region, the catchment of Lake Nkuruba has experienced a low level of human disturbance and so offers a rare opportunity to understand the impact of climate change on a lake system and its function, and upon water quantity and quality, without the significant added impact of people. In addition to long-term monitoring, palaeolimnology, the study of lake sediments, can be used to extract information about past environmental and climatic changes, but over a much longer time frame. Many components of a lake system (including biological and geochemical components) are recorded in the lake sediments, which act as a history book for the lake and its catchment, and can be analyzed to infer environmental change and its drivers. The sediments can be dated using radiometric techniques, so that timing of changes can be understood and correlated with other known environmental changes. Studies of the environmental indicators preserved in lake sediments from Lake Nkuruba (Saulnier-Talbot et al., 2014, 2018) and a number of the other Ugandan crater lakes (e.g. Mills et al., 2014; Mills et al., 2018; Ryves et al., 2011), have shown there have been significant fluctuations of the crater lake water balance over time. The improved understanding of Lake Nkuruba's hydrological system that we will get from this research will improve understanding of these Ugandan lake systems in general, which will help interpretation of the records obtained from lake sediments about past lake conditions as well as helping to understand the potential impact of climatic change on the water quality of these socially, economically, and environmentally important lakes in the future.

NERC：劳拉·亨特（Laura Hunt）：NE/L002604/1trapical Lakes为其社区提供重要的水资源和生态系统服务，但对气候和环境变化的反应知之甚少。在西乌干达，有80多个火山口湖为农村社区提供了关键的资源。其中包括提供手工渔业和生态旅游机会的农作物和牲畜资源。先前的工作（例如Mills，2009; Saulnier-Talbot等，2014）表明，这些火山口湖及其集水区的压力越来越大，例如森林砍伐和气候变化。通过了解火山口湖对各个时间尺度环境变化的反应，可以预测其水平衡和水质的未来变化，从而有助于为地表供水的可持续管理提供信息（Mills等，2017）。 Long-term monitoring data from tropical lakes is sparse, and where they do exist, they tend to be discontinuous and cover relatively short time periods (<20 years), however the Kibale Fish Project (led by Prof. Lauren Chapman from McGill University in Canada) has routinely monitored Lake Nkuruba since 1991, making this small Ugandan lake one of the best-monitored lakes in Africa.拟议的研究项目将整理，组织和数字化该项目收集的pH，电导率和降雨数据，从而创造出东非水质测量最长的记录。与该地区的许多其他湖泊相比，恩库鲁巴湖的集水区经历了低水平的人类干扰，因此提供了难得的机会来了解气候变化对湖泊系统及其功能的影响以及对水的数量和质量，而没有人们的重大影响。除了长期监测外，对湖泊沉积物的研究还可以用于提取有关过去环境和气候变化的信息，但在更长的时间范围内。湖系统（包括生物学和地球化学组成部分）的许多组成部分都记录在湖泊沉积物中，它们是湖泊及其集水区的历史书，可以分析以推断环境变化及其驱动因素。沉积物可以使用辐射技术进行日期，以便可以理解变化的时机并与其他已知的环境变化相关。对来自Nkuruba湖沉积物中保存的环境指标的研究（Saulnier-Talbot等人，2014，2014）和其他许多乌干达火山口湖泊（例如Mills等，2014; Mills等，2018; Ryves等人，2011年）都表明了Crater Lake的高度波动。我们将从这项研究中获得的对Nkuruba湖的水文系统的了解，这将提高人们对这些乌干达湖系统的理解，这将有助于解释从湖沉积物中获得的有关过去湖泊状况的记录，并有助于了解气候变化对这些社会，经济，经济上以及环境在未来中重要湖泊的水质的潜在影响。