Morphometry and Average Temperature Affect Lake Stratification Responses to Climate Change: Lake Stratification Responses to Climate
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Date
2015-05
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Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
Climate change is affecting lake stratification with consequences for water quality and the benefits
that lakes provide to society. Here we use long-term temperature data (1970–2010) from 26 lakes around the
world to show that climate change has altered lake stratification globally and that the magnitudes of lake
stratification changes are primarily controlled by lake morphometry (mean depth, surface area, and volume)
and mean lake temperature. Deep lakes and lakes with high average temperatures have experienced the largest
changes in lake stratification even though their surface temperatures tend to be warming more slowly.
These results confirm that the nonlinear relationship between water density and water temperature
and the strong dependence of lake stratification on lake morphometry makes lake temperature trends
relatively poor predictors of lake stratification trends.
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Citation
Kraemer, B.M., Anneville, O., Chandra, S., Dix, M., Kuusisto, E., Livingstone, D.M., Rimmer, A., Schladow, S.G., Silow, E., Sitoki, L.M. and Tamatamah, R., 2015. Morphometry and average temperature affect lake stratification responses to climate change. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(12), pp.4981-4988.