Benthification and lake restoration in China

Xiufeng Zhang (Jinan University), Xueying Mei (Anhui Agricultural University), Zhengwen Liu (Jinan University), and their students, Erik Jeppesen (Aarhus, Denmark), William Taylor (Waterloo, Canada), Rudstam.

CBFS have been involved in a series of China NSF funded project on benthic pelagic coupling and the effects of mussels and fish on shallow lakes. These projects are led by Xiufeng Zhang and Zhengwen Liu (Jinan University, Guangzhou Province) and Xueying Mei (Anhui University, Hefei Province), collaborations that started when Drs   Zhang and Mei were on sabbatical leave at CBFS in 2015-17. This research group also involves Belarussian scientist, Erik Jeppesen from Denmark as well as Bill Taylor from Waterloo Canada up to his passing in 2022. A series of mesocosm experiments on P recycling with various food web configurations have shown a strong effect of fish on shallow ecosystems, but also of bivalve and gastropods. Removal of fish and planting of macrophytes are increasingly used for shallow lake restoration in China. In 2022, two papers were completed, one on the effects of elevated temperature on resource competition between benthic and pelagic algae (Mei et al. 2022) and the other on the effect of tilapia on algae and macrophytes in mesocosm (Mei et al. submitted). Zhang and Rudstam organized a special session at SIL in Berlin and presented on benthic-pelagic coupling, although talks ended up virtual. Further, Drs Zhang, Mei, and their students presented at a number of local and national meetings in China on these topics in 2022.