[Effects of Sediment Dredging on the Reduction in Sediment Internal Loading of Lake Taihu and the Self-recovery Ability of Benthic Organism].

Sediment dredging has a great effect on the control of lake internal loading and is one of the important methods for lake internal loading management. In this study, the dredged area of Taihu Lake was used as the main object. An estimation of the reduction in whole lake internal loading of Taihu Lake in decade years was carried out. At the same time, we evaluated the effect of sediment dredging on the control of internal loading in the northern area of Taihu Lake (Zhushan Bay and Meiliang Bay). The results indicated that a total of 42 million cubes of sediment was dredged from Taihu Lake, and the total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and organic matter in the dredged sediment was estimated to be approximately 6.26×104 tons, 1.83×104 tons, and 11.7×105 tons, respectively. This was roughly equal to the 20 years of external loading pollution accumulated in Taihu Lake. From a long-term perspective, sediment dredging could effectively increase the water quality of Meiliang Bay within five years and that where the external loading has been controlled effectively. However, the water quality of Meiliang Bay subsequently rebounded, but dredging still reduced the nitrogen and phosphorus content in surface sediment. On the contrary, dredging could not effectively control the internal loading of Zhushan Bay, which still had a large input of external loading. The amount of sediment internal loading recovered to the original level of the pre-dredging period. In a six-year-long period of continuous monitoring of the benthic organism community of Zhushan Bay, the results indicated that sediment dredging could cause negative effects on sediment dredging initially, but the density and biomass of the benthic organisms in the dredged area had later been recovered to the un-dredged level. There was no difference between the dredged and un-dredged areas with regard to the diversity indices of benthic organisms. The results of this study indicated that sediment dredging can effectively control the lake internal loading. However, the maintenance period of dredging effects was related closely to the input intensity of the external loading. In addition, sediment dredging did not have a large influence on the benthic organism community and could recover to the original level depending on self-recovery.

[Influence of Different Types of Dewatering Agents on the Solidification Effect and Physical and Chemical Properties of Sediment].

In order to study the comprehensive effects of different types of dehydrating agents on the dewatering and solidification of dredged sediments, this study took the dredged sediments of Taihu Lake as the research object and selected microorganisms, polymeric iron aluminum salts, organic polymers, organic-inorganic composites, and aluminum salt microorganisms. These five types of composite dehydrating agents were used to conduct a three-month solidification test on the dredged sediment by means of geotechnical pipe bag solidification. The results of the study showed that the dehydration efficiency of organic polymers and organic-inorganic composite chemicals was better. After one month, the water content of sediment dropped to 61.78% and 63.26%, respectively, which then dropped to 40.56% and 32.16% after three months. Compared with that of the unsolidified sludge, the total nitrogen of the bottom sludge after solidification by the organic-inorganic composite agent was reduced by 74.82%, reaching 591 mg·kg-1, primarily due to the reduction in ammonia nitrogen. The solid sludge contained mainly aluminum-bound phosphorus, calcium-bound phosphorus, and iron-bound phosphorus. Among them, four groups (organic-inorganic composite) had the largest reduction in active phosphorus, with the lowest being 64.3 mg·kg-1. In addition, organic polymer agents had the best curing effect on heavy metals, the comprehensive ecological risk index of heavy metals was reduced by 51.3%, and the leaching toxicity concentration was far below the standard threshold. This study showed that organic polymers and organic-inorganic composite medicaments have a better effect on the dehydration and solidification of bottom sludge and thus have good application prospects.

[Estimation of releasing fluxes of sediment nitrogen and phosphorus in Fubao Bay in Dianchi Lake].

NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P release from the sediment of Fubao Bay in Dianchi Lake were simulated using static incubations of intact sediment cores. The results showed that the releasing rates of sediment NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P were 22.941-163.117 mg x (m2 x d)(-1) and 0.90-2.06 mg x (m2 x d)(-1), respectively, with large variation in different sampling areas. The lower releasing rates were associated with declined concentration gradients between sediment pore water and overlying water,which might be related to the high input of sewages in the bay. Using peeper (in situ dialysis membrane samplers) method, concentration gradients of NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P were obtained at the interstitial water-overlying water profiles. Based on calculations using the Fick's First Law,the releasing rates of sediment NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P were estimated at 2.85-81.96 mg x (m2 x d)(-1) and 0.118-0.265 mg x (m2 x d)(-1), respectively. Comparison of the two methods using to estimate the fluxes of sediment NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P, the NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P flux from the calculation using Fick's First Law was lower than that using static incubations. For the whole bay,the area-weighted releasing fluxes of NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P from static incubations were estimated to be (49.9 +/- 8.8) t x a(-1) and (0.79 +/- 0.53) t x a(-1), respectively.