Classification of the Tatra Mountain lakes in terms of the duration of their ice cover (Poland and Slovakia)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a classification of the Tatra lakes based on the duration of their ice cover, altitude, volume, and potential incoming solar radiation (PISR). It is embedded in the context of the impact of current climate change on the mountain environment. A digital elevation model, morphometric data, satellite imagery from the winter seasons of 2015-2017 and the Wrocław taxonomy method were used in the study. It was found that the order of freezing and thawing of the lakes investigated may change from year to year. The relationship between ice cover duration and altitude is clearly weakened by variations in lake volumes, with insolation having a noticeably lesser effect. Determining the duration of ice cover of the lakes over several seasons facilitates identifying the similarities and dissimilarities between them. Five groups of lakes displaying similar characteristics were identified as well as 2 groups of lakes with highly individual characteristics. Based on the data obtained, it can be concluded that the duration of ice cover on the Tatra lakes has been shortening noticeably over the last 100 years. Small high-altitude lakes seem to be most vulnerable to climate change.

Conditions of spatiotemporal variability of the thickness of the ice cover on lakes in the Tatra Mountains

“…A comparison of the Morskie Oko data for the 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 seasons (Gądek et al 2020) plus those for 2017/2018 and 1963-2012 (Pawłowski 2018) reveals a distinct trend to a reduction in duration for both ice cover and ice phenomena. In the season 2017/2018, the latter began developing five days earlier and the former ten days earlier than the long-term average , but ended as many as 23 and 28 days earlier, respectively.…”

Classification of Water Reservoirs in Terms of Ice Phenomena Using Advanced Statistical Methods—The Case of the Silesian Upland (Southern Poland)

“…Very little has been written on variation in the patterns of ice phenomena in regional terms, and there are few papers addressing the issue of classification of lakes in terms of variation in their ice regimes [3,[39][40][41][42][43]. In the case of anthropogenic reservoirs, the identification of their ice regime is negligible and represents a research gap due, among other factors, to their short functioning in the environment.…”