water Article Effects of Irrigation Discharge on Salinity of a Large Freshwater Lake: A Case Study in Chagan Lake, Northeast China Xuemei Liu 1,2, Guangxin Zhang 1,*, Jingjie Zhang 3 , Y. Jun Xu 4 , Yao Wu 1, Yanfeng Wu 1 , Guangzhi Sun 1 , Yueqing Chen 1 and Hongbo Ma 5 1 Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: + 86-0431-130-8941-0676; Fax: + 86-0431-8554-2298 Received: 26 May 2020; Accepted: 23 July 2020; Published: 25 July 2020 Abstract: The salinization of freshwater lakes by agricultural activities poses a threat to many lake ecosystems around the world. Quantitative, medium- to long-term studies are needed to understand how some common agricultural practices, such as the discharge of crop irrigation in the vicinities of large lakes, may affect lake salinization. In this study, hydrological, hydrodynamics, water quality and meteorological datasets were used to analyze the long-term spatial-temporal variations of water salinities of a major lake, the Chagan Lake, in Northeast China.