Abstract: Dongting lake is the largest reserve lake in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river. It plays an important role in regulating the surrounding climate of the lake, and the climate also reacts on the lake. In order to study the response mechanism between the area change of Dongting lake and climate change, the long sequence data of water area of Dongting lake from 1989 to 2018 was used to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of water area of Dongting lake, and the relationship between the change of water area and climate factors was studied. The results showed that the area of Dongting lake fluctuated significantly, with the largest monthly average area in July and the smallest in January. In recent 30 years, the water area of Dongting lake was in a general shrinking trend, and the annual maximum lake area and area change had a decreasing trend. According to the analysis of the lake area of nearly 30a with temperature and precipitation, the change of the water area of Dongting lake had a significant correlation with the surrounding climate conditions in the long-term evolution process, but the correlation was not significant in the short term. The change of lake area caused the temperature around the lake area to rise faster than the average rise rate of Hunan province and even the whole country.

Key words: water area, climate change, Dongting lake