Climate sensitivity of Sierra Nevada Lakes

We analyzed the thermal response in the upper mixed layer of a lake in
the Sierra Nevada of California to interannual variation in air
temperature, snow deposition, and other climate factors to
characterize relative effects on water temperature. We then use summer
temperature data from 19 lakes to understand how the relative
importance of snow and other factors governing lake temperature vary
at broad spatial scales and predict sensitivity to warming in over
1600 lakes across the region. Our study has three specific objectives:
1) to characterize how water temperatures in mountain lakes are
responding to variation in air temperature, snow deposition, and other
climate factors; 2) to evaluate scaling relationships for water
temperature using landscape and lake morphometric attributes; and 3)
using those scaling relationships, to identify lakes that are most
sensitive to warming from ongoing changes in climate. Our results
emphasize the high rate of climate warming taking place in mountain
ecosystems, and demonstrate the substantial role of snowpack in
governing lake temperature. We illustrate the extent to which warming
within lakes scales with elevation and lake morphometric attributes,
and use those empirical relationships to identify lakes most sensitive
to ongoing changes in climate.