As the lake shrank, villagers' hauls of fish and water chestnuts declined.
During the lowstand system tract (LST), the lake level declined and the lake shrank.
Additional published age constraints demonstrate that the expanse of the lake shrunk shortly after 9 Ma, yet the water balance in the western sector of the basin permitted lacustrine diatomite deposition until more recently than ~ 6.4 Ma.
The evaporation is greater than precipitation and inflows, making the lake shrink consistently from 1600 to less 200 km since early Holocene (11,500 7,600 cal yr BP).
Some think the lake may shrink to its lowest ever.
Normally 20 feet deep, the lake has shrunk to an average depth of just under 3 feet.
Much of the catch from the fishing industry is now quarantined, and the forest and wetland habitats around the lake have shrunk.
Since the 1970s, global warming has caused the lake to shrink by around 90%. Once one of the world's biggest lakes, at 25,000 sq km, it is now less than 2,500 sq km.
Over a period of about seven decades, the lake has shrunk by 28.05 % and the wetlands by 37.81 %.
Decrease of sponge spicule is interpreted that shallow water environments along the lake margin shrunk, because freshwater sponge usually live a life attaching a gravel, stem of waterside plants, and decayed tree in submerged lake margin.
