Dongting Lake East (Yiyang)

Dongting Lake East (Yiyang)

Introduction

Dongting Lake East is a large, wide-channel lake that receives water from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River as well as four major rivers in Hunan: the Xiang, Zi, Yuan, and Li. The lake is surrounded by vast marshes and plains. Dongting Lake East is the largest lake in the Dongting Lake system, with an average annual throughput of 312.6 billion cubic meters. Its perennial storage capacity is 17.8 billion cubic meters, with an average depth of 4–22 meters, a maximum water level fluctuation of 17.76 meters, and a pH range of 6.8–8.6. Its landscape features a crisscrossing wetland terrain of ditches and channels. The soil consists of lacustrine marsh soil and river-marsh soil. The annual average temperature is 17°C, with an average annual temperature of 17.5°C suitable for red-crowned cranes, total annual precipitation of 1,200–1,330 mm, and a frost-free period of 258–275 days. The lake is rich in submerged, floating, and emergent aquatic vegetation. A total of 131 species of aquatic plants have been recorded, belonging to 40 families and 75 genera. Common submerged plants include sedge, black algae; floating plants include lotus, gorgon fruit, and duckweed; and emergent plants include reedmace and reeds. The wetlands are surrounded by rice paddies and other crops.

Yiyang City, Hunan Province