National framework for ranking lakes by potential for anthropogenic hydro-alteration

Natural and anthropogenic controls on lake water‐level decline and evaporation‐to‐inflow ratio in the conterminous United States

“…Land and water management infrastructure and activities are widespread among CONUS lakes (Fergus et al 2021). Although we attempted to minimize human‐related water management effects by examining a subset of lakes with low HydrAP values; even so, over 70% of these 553 lakes had some level of anthropogenic disturbance.…”

“…We characterized the degree of human‐related water management presence on a lake using the HydrAP metric (Fergus et al 2021). The HydrAP metric is an integrated measure of the potential for dams and specific land use activities (e.g., irrigated, tile drainage agriculture, total agriculture, and urban development) to alter lake hydrologic characteristics that can be applied across CONUS using information from the National Inventory of Dams and National Land Cover Database.…”

“…Rather, we focus our analyses on land and water management as indicated by dam infrastructure and land use, which have been shown to have pronounced effects on both lake and stream hydrology (Haddeland et al 2014; Carlisle et al 2019; Wine et al 2019). We used the human hydrologic alteration potential (HydrAP) metric (Fergus et al 2021) in our model to represent anthropogenic factors that have the potential to significantly alter lake hydrologic characteristics. The HydrAP metric integrates information on dam capacity, land use activities, and topographic relief to rank lakes on a gradient of potential anthropogenic hydrological alteration.…”

Global hydro-environmental lake characteristics at high spatial resolution

“…The LakeATLAS dataset is expected to create novel opportunities for a mix of theoretical and applied limnological studies, enabling multi-variable statistical assessments and model-based analyses, and to stimulate large-scale limnological research in otherwise data-poor or remote regions. For example, LakeATLAS can facilitate large-scale assessments of anthropogenic pressures on lakes 29 , support systematic lake classification efforts 30,31 , and reveal biases in monitoring and conservation networks 32,33 , tasks previously unachievable at this scale in the absence of consistent global data. Globally comprehensive data on lake characteristics can also be combined with datasets from in situ monitoring networks like the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) 34 , long-term ecological research networks 35 , other data compilation efforts (e.g., ref.…”

Comparison of caddisfly (Insecta, Trichoptera) assemblages from lake and river habitats of the Huron Mountains of Michigan (USA)

“…Without truly undisturbed reference sites for comparison, however, it is difficult to accurately evaluate current species composition or ecological functioning of freshwater ecosystems. This problem is especially true for lake ecosystems, as research on the biotic assemblages and potential for anthropogenic disturbance of such habitats has lagged far behind that of river habitats ( Peck et al 2020 ; Fergus et al 2021 ). Thus, quantifying assemblages of ecologically important aquatic insect taxa within undisturbed reference sites, especially those of lakes, should be a scientific priority.…”