The construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir has had certain effects on the ecological environment of the water and serious phytoplankton blooms have occurred in its tributary embayment. To explore the spatial distribution of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients and chlorophyll-a in different tributaries of the Three Gorges Reservoir, a water quality study (June 2018) was conducted in the Xiangxi River, Shengnongxi River, and Daning River of the Three Gorges Reservoir. The results showed that the average TN in the three tributaries was 1.86 mg·L-1, 1.90 mg·L-1, and 1.43 mg·L-1, respectively, and average TP was 0.09 mg·L-1, 0.07 mg·L-1, and 0.05 mg·L-1, respectively. Single-factor ANOVA analysis showed that the spatial difference in TN was significant and occurred in the following order:Shennongxi River > Xiangxi River > Daning River. There were significant differences in the spatial distribution of TP, which were in the order off Xiangxi River > Shennongxi River > Daning River. The mean concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the three tributaries was 6.41 μg·L-1, 21.39 μg·L-1, and 9.85μg·L-1, respectively. The results from the Pearson correlation analysis, showed that chlorophyll-a concentrations were closely related to TP distribution in all tributaries, but Zeu/Zmix was also correlated with the distribution of chlorophyll-a in the Shennongxi River and Daning River. The ratio of TN and TP concentrations was 22.36, 26.76, and 28.6, respectively, which revealed that TP is a critical and limiting factor affecting phytoplankton growth in its tributary embayment.
Keywords: Daning River; Shennongxi River; Three Gorges Reservoir; Xiangxi River; chlorophyll-a; nutrient.