According to the study on the aquatic environment of the typical lakes in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, lake eutrophication is a process in which the lake ecosystem degenerates, resulting in the deterioration of the water quality due to the enrichment of the nutrients. Moreover, the succession of lake ecosystem and change of water quality both couple well with the evolvement of trophic state. Then the conceptual model is mentioned and ten lake states are classified. Based on these, the authors analyzed the eutrophication processes of the typical lakes in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River. The large lakes with taking in-sending out water typical of Poyang Lake evolve from State 1 before the 1980s into State 2 after the 1980s, the large and medium lakes typical of Taihu Lake evolve from State 1–2 in the 1960s into State 8 in the 1980s then into State 9 in the 1990s, the medium and small shallow lakes typical of Honghu Lake evolve from State 1 in the 1960s into State 2 after the 1980s and the small city (suburban) lakes typical of Donghu Lake evolve from State 2 in the 1960s into State 9 after the 1970s. Further, the 1980s is the key conversion period of the lakes of various types typical of Poyang Lake, Honghu Lake and Taihu Lake converting into mesotrophic state, the 1990s is that of Taihu Lake into eutrophic state and the 1970s is that of the small city (suburban) lakes typical of Donghu Lake into eutrophic state. The series of nutrient evolvement of different typical lakes are similar, but the processes are not synchronous, which is related to the various human and natural driving mechanisms in lake basins.
