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Response to environmental flows in the lower Tarim River, Xinjiang, China: Ground water.

Hou P, Beeton RJ, Carter RW, Dong XG, Li X

Zhejiang Forestry College, Linan, Zhejiang Province, China.

In China's west since the 1950s large-scale ecosystem degeneration has occurred through water diversions for agricultural purposes. Since 2000, 1038x10(6)m(3) of water have been released into the Tarim River with the result that water reached the terminal Taitema Lake for the first time in 30 years. This environmental flow raised water-table levels along 350km of the river. To assess the response of the water-table, a comparison "pristine" site is compared with downstream monitored sites. The results show huge changes in water-table levels. The study verifies that the water-table is extremely responsive to environmental flows, that strong internal similarities exist along the length of the river, and that the effect on the water-table and hence likely riparian vegetation recovery can be tentatively predicted. The actual impacts of the restoration strategy are less than those originally expected politically, socially and within the scientific community. We make recommendations on more effective release strategies.

Published 25 September 2006 in J Environ Manage.
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