Analysis of the relationship between species diversity and hydrologic factors during an interval of intermittent water delivery at the Lower Reaches of Tarim River, China

Tarim River is located in south Xinjiang, northwest China. With a length of 1321 km, it is one of the longest inland rivers in the world. The name translates to "Water of Life", and certainly the river plays a key role in the development of the local society and the health of the ecosystem. Water resource development driven by irrational exploitation and increases in water utilization at the upper reaches over the past five decades has greatly disturbed the natural distribution of water resources within the valley. One major consequence is that more than 321 km of the watercourse has been drained after the Daxihaizi Reservoir was built in the 1970s. Consequently, groundwater depths along the dry watercourse increased leading to continual deterioration of groundwater quality. Along with fall in groundwater level and deterioration of groundwater quality, was the deterioration of the desert riparian system at the lower reaches of Tarim River. The desert riparian system reached a state of collapse: the area of Populus euphratica forest, the main tree species of the region, declined from 5.4 x 10 super(4)--0.523 x 10 super(4) hm super(2) along the lower reaches of Tarim River, while the area covered by shrub and meadow decreased by 200 km super(2). In addition, a total area of 12,300 km super(2) experienced desertification. To prevent the continued deterioration of the ecosystem along the dried-up watercourse and to prevent further desertification, a water delivery project has been carried out. Starting from May 2000, the water in Boston Lake was intermittently supplied to the dry watercourse. By December 2006, 11 intermittent water releases had been carried out. The released water played a critical role in vegetation recovery. However, from December 2006--June 2010, the ecological water delivery ceased. This provided a research opportunity for studying the stability of the ecosystem at the lower Tarim River after seven years of introduced water deliveries. The aims of this study were to 1) describe the variations in groundwater depths and the quality of groundwater during the four year long interval of no water delivery, 2) depict the variations in vegetation species diversity during the interval, 3) explain the relationships between groundwater and species diversity. Based on the monitoring data of groundwater depths, groundwater chemistry and species of vegetation, the variations in species diversity and related factors were analyzed. It was found that the a