The goal of this study is to look at how the interconnection of five North American Great Lakes affects the relationship between climate indices and mean annual and extreme daily water levels during the period from 1918 to 2012, and how human activity impacts the dependence between these two variables. Analysis of correlation revealed the existence of a negative correlation between water levels in Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron and Erie, and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) climate index, although this correlation is not observed at the daily scale for Lake Superior. Water levels in Lake Ontario are negatively correlated with Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). The temporal evolution of the dependence between water levels and climate indices is characterized by breaks interpreted to result from variations in the amount of precipitation probably linked with an AMO phase change in the Lakes Superior, Michigan-Huron, and Erie watersheds. In the case of Lake Ontario, such breaks in dependence are thought to be related to water level regulation in this lake resulting from the digging of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
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