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Abstract Lakes are experiencing ice declines and fundamental changes in winter conditions. For Earth's largest lakes that experience seasonal ice cover, the relationship between ice conditions and evaporation is critical to water balance estimates and global freshwater storage. Here, we analyze robust data sets of net basin supplies, satellite‐derived products, and model estimates of surface turbulent heat flux for the Laurentian Great Lakes during the period 1973–2022. We show that ice cover does not have a strong relationship with lake evaporation in winter months and that often the magnitude of the ice effect on moisture flux reduction is within the range of natural variability and the uncertainty of water budget estimates. This suggests that differences in lake evaporation between cold and warm winters is driven by seasonal overlake atmospheric conditions, more broadly, and that ice cover reduces but does not determine the resultant evaporation.
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The Changing Face of Winter: Lessons and Questions From the Laurentian Great Lakes
Abstract Among its many impacts, climate warming is leading to increasing winter air temperatures, decreasing ice cover extent, and changing winter precipitation patterns over the Laurentian Great Lakes and their watershed. Understanding and predicting the consequences of these changes is impeded by a shortage of winter‐period studies on most aspects of Great Lake limnology. In this review, we summarize what is known about the Great Lakes during their 3–6 months of winter and identify key open questions about the physics, chemistry, and biology of the Laurentian Great Lakes and other large, seasonally frozen lakes. Existing studies show that winter conditions have important effects on physical, biogeochemical, and biological processes, not only during winter but in subsequent seasons as well. Ice cover, the extent of which fluctuates dramatically among years and the five lakes, emerges as a key variable that controls many aspects of the functioning of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Studies on the properties and formation of Great Lakes ice, its effect on vertical and horizontal mixing, light conditions, and biota, along with winter measurements of fundamental state and rate parameters in the lakes and their watersheds are needed to close the winter knowledge gap. Overcoming the formidable logistical challenges of winter research on these large and dynamic ecosystems may require investment in new, specialized research infrastructure. Perhaps more importantly, it will demand broader recognition of the value of such work and collaboration between physicists, geochemists, and biologists working on the world's seasonally freezing lakes and seas.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1830011
- PAR ID:
- 10445157
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
- Volume:
- 126
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 2169-8953
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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