Established in 2000, the Dianchi Lake Field Station for Ecosystem Research and Rehabilitation is located in Xiaohezui, Liujia village, Guandu district, Kunming. The station occupies an area of 450 M2 of floor space for laboratories and offices and 400 M2 for residence. It has enclosed an area of 10,000 M2 for water-ecological restoration, including separated fenced grids of various sizes. The station is well-equipped with experimental facilities for lake ecology, such as light incubators, biological incubators, refrigerators, high-pressure bacteria pot, ventilators, muffle furnace, UV-visible spectrophotometers, distiller condenser, COD analyzer, portable pH tester, portable dissolved oxygen analyzer, portable redox potential analyzer, enzyme labeling instrument, analytical balance, vacuum filtration system, ovens, microscopes, dissecting microscopes, ultrasonic disrupters, chlorophyll fluorescence analyzers, and so on. It also has a motor-driven boat for sampling.
On this basis, the Institute has joined forces with other institutions in several research projects in the pollution treatment and eco-environment protection of Dianchi, such as National Basic Research Program (973 program), National High Technology Program (863), National Major Project for Water Pollution Control and Management and National Science Foundation of China and so on. Also on this basis, the Institute became the first to carry out research on and projects for the development of technologies in pollution control of cyanobacteial bloom and restoration of the ecosystem. Having achieved important theoretical breakthroughs in the control of pollution and ecological restoration in the Dianchi lakes, it put forward a scheme to restore the ecosystem of Dianchi Lake step by step, and has now completed a series of demonstration projects with integrated technologies that can ease the eutrophication and pollution of Dianchi. These technologies are effective, safe, economical and feasible, and have produced considerable social and economic effects.
Meanwhile, through long-time investigation and analysis of the ecosystem, the station has contributed to the understanding of the eutrophication process of Dianchi and the mechanism of cyanobacterial bloom. In relation to these investigation and analysis, the research team in the Station has published more than 400 papers, including more than 300 SCI referenced papers, 60 reports at international conferences. It has been licensed 70 patents, and the “Studies on the Mechanism of Eutrophication Process and Occurrence of Cyanobacterial Bloom”, a “973 Program” project, won the first prize of 2009 S&T Award for Environmental Protection.
