Hyper-concentration and low-sediment-concentration rivers: Ecosystem stability and driving forces

[Display omitted] •With biological and non-biological elements through the maximum generalized entropy principle, a model was constructed to evaluate the stability of river ecosystem.•Comparison was made on stability and driving factors of sediment-starved clear and sediment-laden turbid river ecosystem.•Sediment-starved clear river ecosystem is affected under more factors than sediment-laden turbid river ecosystem.•Among the internal elements, turbidity has the greatest impact on the ecosystem stability of the two types of river ecosystems.•External background factors determine the direction of river ecosystem evolution. The stability of the river ecosystem can determine the health status of the river. And evolutionary driving forces of river ecosystem can reflect the useful information that the river basin disturbance response to the river, which can provide a theoretical basis for the protection and management of the river. The main goal of this study is to establish a river ecosystem stability evaluation model based on biological and non-biological parameters, and to quantify the effects of driving force, such as: human activities, hydrological situation, climatic factors and land utilization on river ecosystem evolution. In the southeastern part of China's Loess Plateau, we selected the mainstream of the Weihe River (hyper-concentration) and the tributaries (low-sediment-concentration) of the Weihe River at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains. Results show that the evaluation model based on maximum generalized entropy principle (MGEP) is suitable for stability evaluation of different river ecosystems. The stability of hyper-concentration river ecosystem (3.371) is lower than that of low-sediment-concentration ecosystem (5.343). There are 5 key parameters affecting the ecosystem stability of hyper-concentration river while 8 of low-sediment-concentration river. Among the key parameters, turbidity has the greatest impact on the ecosystem stability of both types of rivers. Interestingly, the turbidity of hyper-concentration river is mainly affected by sediment content, while the turbidity of low-sediment-concentration river has a positive correlation with chlorophyll concentration. It’s principally because the two river ecosystems are affected by different external driving forces. Hyper-concentration river ecosystem is mainly driven by land utilization, while low-sediment-concentration is primarily influenced by hydrological situation and climate