BEIJING — Chinese researchers have obtained large-scale water quality parameters of the lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

These lakes are a key component for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, dubbed as "the water tower of Asia," according to the research article published in the journal Science Bulletin.

In the past few decades, there have been only a few published works on investigations involving the water quality of large lakes in the area.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou University and Anhui Normal University obtained in-situ lake water parameters of 124 lakes with a total lake area of 24,570 square kilometers from 2009 to 2019, occupying 53 percent of the total lake area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The in-situ water quality parameters include water temperature, salinity, pH, blue-green algae concentration, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and water clarity.

The data showed that the lakes had high mineralization and low concentrations of plankton, organic matter, dissolved oxygen, and suspended materials, which were caused by the strong evaporation, high insolation and sparse vegetation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

More specifically, 26 lakes of 3,922 square kilometers were freshwater lakes, 75 lakes of 16,340 square kilometers were brackish water lakes, 11 lakes of 2,366 square kilometers were salty water lakes and 12 lakes of 1,942 square kilometers were salt lakes.

The researchers also found that the water transparency of the investigated lakes increased with larger lake area.

The research is expected to contribute to exploring the lake water environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under climate change.