Inter-Annual and Seasonal Variations of Water Quality and Trophic Status of a Reservoir with Fluctuating Monsoon Precipitation

Long-term evaluation from 2000 to 2020 of a temperate reservoir indicated that water quality and trophic status were not critically controlled by the inter-annual dynamics of monsoon precipitation. The fluctuation of annual concentrations of TP, TSS, and EC did not always correlate with the variation of precipitation. BOD and COD demonstrated monotonically increasing trends with Sen’s slope of 0.02 and 0.01, respectively, while Chl-a manifested a decreasing trend (slope = −0.23). The increases of different magnitudes in the levels of TP, TSS, and Chl-a in the monsoon and the early post-monsoon periods were observed in the drought, flood, and normal years. The drought years showed distinct seasonal variations in many parameters, while those in the flood and the normal years were very similar. Pearson correlation and empirical regression analyses resulted in weaker correlation between water quality and hydrological parameters than other reservoirs, which, along with low impact of precipitation, was attributed to the low drainage ratio (28.8) of the study area. BOD/COD ratios were higher than 0.5 in the reservoir, indicating the presence of a significant fraction of biodegradable organic matter. The ratio increased in the longitudinal flow direction (>50% in the drought years), implying the possibility of autochthonous sources of organic matter. TSID evaluation resulted in variation of limiting factors not related to the fluctuation of annual precipitation. The loadings of the significant principal components were very similar among the different precipitation groups, supporting the other findings that annual precipitation governed by monsoon intensity would not solely control the water quality dynamics of the study area.