Ice phenomena in investigations of Polish lakes

Abstract

The paper presents nearly 150 years of history of ice research conducted on Polish lakes. In the first stage, these were observations and expedition studies that had an exploratory purpose. It was not until the 1920s that stationary measurements on several lakes were introduced. Unfortunately, the outbreak of World War II interrupted these observations. After the war, they were resumed in 1946, but the real beginning of investigations of ice phenomena on lakes is taken to be 1960. At present, stationary measurements of ice phenomena are conducted on about 70 lakes located mainly in northern Poland. Besides the purely explorative purpose, experimental research on ice phenomena on lakes has also contributed to the development of a measurement methodology. The author of this paper took part in numerous experimental studies conducted on over 30 lakes for which the ice results are partially presented below.

The Surface Temperature of Water in Polish and Belarusian Lakes during the Period of Climate Change

“…The absolutely highest surface water temperatures in the analyzed lakes were recorded usually at the turn of July and August. The highest temperature 32.7 • C was measured on 15 July 2014 in the Chervonoe lake and 30.1 • C in the Lukomskoe lake, while the lowest was 0.0 • C many times in all analyzed lakes (Table 5) (Skowron 2008, State water cadaster 1971-2021.…”

“…The intensity of the inflow of air masses to the areas of Western Europe, the Baltic Coast, and the East European Lowlands was determined by the activity of permanent atmospheric pressure systems-the Icelandic Lowlands and the Azores Highlands, expressed by the NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) coefficient. Research has shown that the North Atlantic Oscillation had a large impact on the air temperature and the temperature of lake waters in Poland, especially in the winter [2,[15][16][17].…”

Diversity and Variability of the Course of Ice Phenomena on the Lakes Located in the Southern and Eastern Part of the Baltic Sea Catchment Area

“…The first studies of lake icing in the study area were carried out on four lakes and covered the years 1926-1937 [8]. They concerned the Gopło and Serwy lakes located in Poland and the Narocz and Drywiaty lakes located in the northern part of the Belarusian Poozerie.…”

“…The main problem concerning the phenology of lake ice in Poland, presented after 2000, was the long-term changes in the course of individual ice stages. This applies to single lakes [20][21][22][23], as well as a selected group of lakes [8,11,14,24,25]. These issues also concerned the aspect of spatial differentiation of individual forms of ice and the impact of the climate, especially the winter NAO index, on the course of ice [26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…An important issue is still the differentiation of the course of the occurrence of ice phenomena depending on the geographical location of lakes. On the other hand, as examples of differentiation of lake icing in Europe, we can mention the works of Yoo and D'Odorico [6][7][8], for example.…”