Bera
Lake water quality, past and present situation
Mohammadreza
Gharibreza1* and Muhammed Aqeel Ashraf2,3
1Research,
Education & Extension Organization (AREEO), Soil Conservation and Watershed
Management Research Institute, Tehran, 13445-1136, Iran
2Faculty of Science
and Natural Resources, University Malaysia Sabah 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah,
Malaysia
3Department of
Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Environmental Studies, China
University of Geosciences, 430074 Wuhan, P. R. China
*Corresponding
Author E-mail: gharibreza4@yahoo.com
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Publication
Data
Paper received:
21 February 2016
Revised received:
27 April 2016
Re-revised received:
5 May 2016
Accepted:
23 June 2016
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Abstract
Bera
Lake is the largest natural fresh water reservoir in Malaysia. It has vital
environmental and ecological importance for human and wild life.
Nevertheless, water quality of this lake has been degraded during the last
few decades due to land development projects at catchment area. Therefore, a
comprehensive water quality assessment of Bera Lake was implemented in order
to compare current water quality with the implementation of land development
projects. In situ water quality surveying was implemented using
calibrated full option Hydrolab DS 5. Eleven parameters viz.,
temperature, depth of sampling, salinity, Turbidity, total dried solid, pH,
NH4+, NO3-, Cl-,
saturation percentage of dissolved oxygen, specific conductivity were
recorded in fifty one stations at 0.2h, 0.5h, and 0.8h depth. National Water
Quality Standards for Malaysia (NWQS) and Water Quality were used to evaluate
Bera Lake quality based on previous and resultant data. Vertical water
quality analysis revealed a clear stratification in Bera Lake water profile
in terms of temperature, dissolved oxygen, chloride (Cl-), nitrate
(NO3-), pH and specific conductivity (EC) parameters.
Results clearly demonstrate the important role of land use changes since 1972
in the physico-chemical condition of water quality at Bera Lake.
Classifications of water quality before and after land development project
were calculated as class II and class V, respectively. A long-term and
comprehensive monitoring of water quality assessment is recommended in order
to reach plan of sustainable water resources use with conservation approach.
Key
words
Assessment,
Bera lake, Land use changes, Stratification, Water quality
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