The Impact of Climate Change on Lakes in Northern Europe

In Northern Europe, most lakes are characterized by extended periods of winter ice cover, high spring inflow from snow melt and brown water produced by the transport of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from the surrounding catchments. In this chapter, the potential impact of climate change on the dynamics of these lakes is addressed by: (i) Describing the historical responses of the lakes to changes in the weather. (ii) Summarizing the results of modelling studies that quantify the impact of future changes in the climate on the lakes and the surrounding catchments. Many existing water quality problems could well be exacerbated by the effects of climatic change. It is therefore important to assess the holistic responses of the individual lakes to the combined effects of local changes in the catchment and regional changes in the weather (Hall et al., 1999; Anderson et al., 2005). Overall, the response of individual lakes to climate change can be very different (Blenckner et al., 2004). For example, mountain lake catchments are affected differently from those at lower altitudes. In addition, the landscape position of a particular lake influences hydrological flow regime (Kratz et al., 1997). Furthermore, the response of lakes to climatic variation is also modified by physical lake features such as morphometry and water clarity which, in turn, is also affected by the concentration of the dissolved organic carbon (see for example Fee et al., 1996). Also, the alignment of the lake in relation to the main wind direction is important for the timing of the ice break-up and mixing regime. Even, the environmental changes experienced by the lake in the past can affect the magnitude of the response to climatic variation. Lakes in a recovery phase from eutrophication, acidification, toxic components or any other strong human disturbance, might respond differently to climatic variability and change owing to their specific history and food web structure.In this chapter we will: (a) Introduce the Northern landscape and its climate. (b) Describe both the coherent and individual responses of the lakes to the observed variations in the climate and the changes projected for 2070¿2100. (c) Summarize these results in a form that is more accessible to potential end-users.

BLENCKNER Thorsten;  ADRIAN Rita;  ARVOLA Lauri;  JARVINEN Marko;  NOGES Peeter;  NOGES Tiina;  PETTERSSON Kurt;  WEYHENMEYER Gesa; 

2010-01-13

Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

JRC54743

978-90-481-2945-4,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC54743,   

10.1007/978-90-481-2945-4,