Annual water temperature courses in two contrasting lakes at James Ross Island, Antarctica (Short Communication)

In this Short Communication, long-term temperature courses of two contrasting Antarctic lakes are presented. The lakes differed in their different location, size, and origin. Big Lachman Lake is a typical coastal shallow lake located on a terrace at an altitude of about 9 m. Dulánek Lake is a small-...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Váczi, Peter, Hájek, Josef
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Masaryk Univerzity 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.muni.cz/CPR/article/view/12970
Description
Summary:In this Short Communication, long-term temperature courses of two contrasting Antarctic lakes are presented. The lakes differed in their different location, size, and origin. Big Lachman Lake is a typical coastal shallow lake located on a terrace at an altitude of about 9 m. Dulánek Lake is a small-area, shallow kettle lake located in the lateral moraine composed of the back-arc alkaline volcanic rocks of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group at the height of about 220 m a.s.l. The data presented in this study support an idea that the water courses differed between the two lakes due to altitude and local microclimate. Similarly, significant differences in annual and summer-season courses of water temperature were apparent when several consecutive seasons were compared. Such differences have consequences for water invertebrates and autotrophic organisms because of episodic drying out of some lakes and/or formation of long-term lasting ice.