Lakes as sentinels of climate change

Abstract

While there is a general sense that lakes can act as sentinels of climate change, their efficacy has not been thoroughly analyzed. We identified the key response variables within a lake that act as indicators of the effects of climate change on both the lake and the catchment. These variables reflect a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological responses to climate. However, the efficacy of the different indicators is affected by regional response to climate change, characteristics of the catchment, and lake mixing regimes. Thus, particular indicators or combinations of indicators are more effective for different lake types and geographic regions. The extraction of climate signals can be further complicated by the influence of other environmental changes, such as eutrophication or acidification, and the equivalent reverse phenomena, in addition to other land-use influences. In many cases, however, confounding factors can be addressed through analytical tools such as detrending or filtering. Lakes are effective sentinels for climate change because they are sensitive to climate, respond rapidly to change, and integrate information about changes in the catchment.

Climate‐related changes of soil characteristics affect bacterial community composition and function of high altitude and latitude lakes

“…Lake ecosystems integrate changes in the surrounding landscape and atmosphere, acting as sentinels of climate change (Sommaruga‐Wögrath et al ., 1997; Carpenter et al ., 2007; Pham et al ., 2008; Williamson et al ., 2008; Adrian et al ., 2009). Several physical properties of lakes tend to respond directly to climatic forcing, such as water temperature and the duration of ice cover (Adrian et al ., 2009; O'Reilly et al ., 2015). Chemical lake characteristics often integrate catchment processes such as rock weathering and terrestrial primary productivity.…”

Intra- and inter-annual variability in metabolism in an oligotrophic lake

“…Estimates of lake metabolism can integrate signals of complex anthropogenic changes within and beyond the broader lake catchment (Williamson et al 2009;Adrian et al 2009), and as such, are sentinels (sensu Williamson et al 2009) of environmental change in lakes. Lake metabolism is typically summarized by three rates: gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (R), and net ecosystem production (NEP; also known as net ecosystem metabolism).…”

Using the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer to characterise temporal and spatial trends in water temperature of large European lakes

“…A range of parameters are influenced by climate change and variability, but LST is considered the parameter most directly affected by climate, exhibiting strong response to climate forcing (e.g. Adrian et al, 2009;Kondratyev & Filatov, 1999;Livingstone & Dokulil, 2001;Livingstone & Padisák, 2007;Livingstone et al, 2005). Important features such as stratification and mixing patterns may vary due to climatic fluctuations (e.g.…”

“…Arhonditsis et al, 2004;Livingstone, 2003). Climatic changes are predicted to occur non-uniformly across the globe (Hardy, 2003) and have different effects on lakes depending on geographic location (Adrian et al, 2009). This is likely to lead to complex response patterns requiring comprehensive surveillance monitoring programmes to identify rates of change and the greatest sensitivity within individual systems in terms of water resource and ecological response.…”