Progress on the Study of Assessment of Water Purification Service of Lake Ecosystem

Lake Ecosystem plays a vital role in supplying water purification service to the stakeholders. The water purification function is a combination of different biophysical and biochemical processes involving dissolution, sedimentation, biological absorption and biochemical reactions, which are affected by biological factors, environmental factors, socio-economic factors, and the ecological characteristics of the Lake ecosystems. Despite the important role lakes play in purifying the water quality, current research separately focus on two different aspects: the first is integrating ecology, hydrology, and statistical methods to explore the potential pollutant sources for water quality deterioration, the spatial-temporal trend of water quality parameters, comprehensive evaluation of water quality, the mechanisms for water purification, and the influence of land use changes on water quality trend. The other aspect is accounting the value of water purification service using diverse economic models.However, the separation of these two methods are limited in its use in guiding wise water quality management since we are lacking practical tools to connect human factors to ecosystem structures and process to economic value. This paper presented a detailed synthesis of the purification function of Lake Ecosystem. The overall objective of this review is presenting a framework to assess the water purification service in both biophysical amount and economic value, which can then provide guidance toward better lake ecosystem management.