Small lakes show muted climate change signal in deepwater temperatures

Geophysical Research Letters
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Abstract

Water temperature observations were collected from 142 lakes across Wisconsin, USA, to examine variation in temperature of lakes exposed to similar regional climate. Whole lake water temperatures increased across the state from 1990 to 2012, with an average trend of 0.042°C yr−1 ± 0.01°C yr−1. In large (>0.5 km2) lakes, the positive temperature trend was similar across all depths. In small lakes (<0.5 km2), the warming trend was restricted to shallow waters, with no significant temperature trend observed in water >0.5 times the maximum lake depth. The differing response of small versus large lakes is potentially a result of wind-sheltering reducing turbulent mixing magnitude in small lakes. These results demonstrate that small lakes respond differently to climate change than large lakes, suggesting that current predictions of impacts to lakes from climate change may require modification.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Small lakes show muted climate change signal in deepwater temperatures
Series title Geophysical Research Letters
DOI 10.1002/2014GL062325
Volume 42
Issue 2
Year Published 2015
Language English
Publisher American Geophysical Union
Description 7 p.
First page 355
Last page 361
Country United States
State Wisconsin
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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