Diel surface temperature range scales with lake size

Woolway, R. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0498-7968, Jones, I. D., Maberly, S. C., French, J. R., Livingstone, D. M., Monteith, D. T., Simpson, G. L., Thackeray, S. J., Andersen, M. R., Battarbee, R. W., DeGasperi, C. L., Evans, C. D., de Eyto, E., Feuchtmayr, H., Hamilton, D. P., Kernan, M., Krokowski, J., Rimmer, A., Rose, K. C., Rusak, J. A., Ryves, D. B., Scott, D. R., Shilland, E. M., Smyth, R. L., Staehr, P. A., Thomas, R., Waldron, S. and Weyhenmeyer, G. A. (2016) Diel surface temperature range scales with lake size. PLoS ONE, 11 (3). e0152466. ISSN 1932-6203 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152466

Abstract/Summary

Ecological and biogeochemical processes in lakes are strongly dependent upon water temperature. Long-term surface warming of many lakes is unequivocal, but little is known about the comparative magnitude of temperature variation at diel timescales, due to a lack of appropriately resolved data. Here we quantify the pattern and magnitude of diel temperature variability of surface waters using high-frequency data from 100 lakes. We show that the near-surface diel temperature range can be substantial in summer relative to long-term change and, for lakes smaller than 3 km2, increases sharply and predictably with decreasing lake area. Most small lakes included in this study experience average summer diel ranges in their near-surface temperatures of between 4 and 7°C. Large diel temperature fluctuations in the majority of lakes undoubtedly influence their structure, function and role in biogeochemical cycles, but the full implications remain largely unexplored.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/65523
Identification Number/DOI	10.1371/journal.pone.0152466
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Public Library of Science
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