Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation
Lakes provide many important benefits to society, including drinking water, flood attenuation, nutrition, and recreation. Anthropogenic environmental changes may affect these benefits by altering lake water levels. However, background climate oscillations such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and...
Published in: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
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2020
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00051548 2023-05-15T17:34:55+02:00 Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation Kraemer, Benjamin M. Seimon, Anton Adrian, Rita McIntyre, Peter B. 2020-05 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2593-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051548 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00051204/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/24/2593/2020/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications Hydrology and Earth System Sciences -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2100610 -- http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/volumes_and_issues.html -- 1607-7938 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2593-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051548 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00051204/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/24/2593/2020/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC-BY article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2020 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2593-2020 2022-02-08T22:36:21Z Lakes provide many important benefits to society, including drinking water, flood attenuation, nutrition, and recreation. Anthropogenic environmental changes may affect these benefits by altering lake water levels. However, background climate oscillations such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation can obscure long-term trends in water levels, creating uncertainty over the strength and ubiquity of anthropogenic effects on lakes. Here we account for the effects of background climate variation and test for long-term (1992–2019) trends in water levels in 200 globally distributed large lakes using satellite altimetry data. The median percentage of water level variation associated with background climate variation was 58 %, with an additional 10 % explained by seasonal variation and 25 % by the long-term trend. The relative influence of specific axes of background climate variation on water levels varied substantially across and within regions. After removing the effects of background climate variation on water levels, long-term water level trend estimates were lower (median: +0.8 cm yr−1) than calculated from raw water level data (median: +1.2 cm yr−1). However, the trends became more statistically significant in 86 % of lakes after removing the effects of background climate variation (the median p value of trends changed from 0.16 to 0.02). Thus, robust tests for long-term trends in lake water levels which may or may not be anthropogenic will require prior isolation and removal of the effects of background climate variation. Our findings suggest that background climate variation often masks long-term trends in environmental variables but can be accounted for through more comprehensive statistical analyses. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 24 5 2593 2608 |
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English |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Kraemer, Benjamin M. Seimon, Anton Adrian, Rita McIntyre, Peter B. Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Lakes provide many important benefits to society, including drinking water, flood attenuation, nutrition, and recreation. Anthropogenic environmental changes may affect these benefits by altering lake water levels. However, background climate oscillations such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation can obscure long-term trends in water levels, creating uncertainty over the strength and ubiquity of anthropogenic effects on lakes. Here we account for the effects of background climate variation and test for long-term (1992–2019) trends in water levels in 200 globally distributed large lakes using satellite altimetry data. The median percentage of water level variation associated with background climate variation was 58 %, with an additional 10 % explained by seasonal variation and 25 % by the long-term trend. The relative influence of specific axes of background climate variation on water levels varied substantially across and within regions. After removing the effects of background climate variation on water levels, long-term water level trend estimates were lower (median: +0.8 cm yr−1) than calculated from raw water level data (median: +1.2 cm yr−1). However, the trends became more statistically significant in 86 % of lakes after removing the effects of background climate variation (the median p value of trends changed from 0.16 to 0.02). Thus, robust tests for long-term trends in lake water levels which may or may not be anthropogenic will require prior isolation and removal of the effects of background climate variation. Our findings suggest that background climate variation often masks long-term trends in environmental variables but can be accounted for through more comprehensive statistical analyses. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kraemer, Benjamin M. Seimon, Anton Adrian, Rita McIntyre, Peter B. |
author_facet |
Kraemer, Benjamin M. Seimon, Anton Adrian, Rita McIntyre, Peter B. |
author_sort |
Kraemer, Benjamin M. |
title |
Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
title_short |
Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
title_full |
Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
title_fullStr |
Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
title_sort |
worldwide lake level trends and responses to background climate variation |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2593-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051548 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00051204/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/24/2593/2020/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_relation |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2100610 -- http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/volumes_and_issues.html -- 1607-7938 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2593-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00051548 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00051204/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/24/2593/2020/hess-24-2593-2020.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2593-2020 |
container_title |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
container_volume |
24 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
2593 |
op_container_end_page |
2608 |
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1766133916911009792 |