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Sensitivity of two Iberian lakes to North Atlantic atmospheric circulation modes

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Abstract

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) exerts a major influence on the climate of the North Atlantic region. However, other atmospheric circulation modes (ACMs), such as the East Atlantic (EA) and Scandinavian (SCAND) patterns, also play significant roles. The dynamics of lakes on the Iberian Peninsula are greatly controlled by climatic parameters, but their relationship with these various ACMs has not been investigated in detail. In this paper, we analyze monthly meteorological and limnological long-term datasets (1950–2011 and 1992–2011, respectively) from two lakes on the northern and central Iberian Peninsula (Sanabria and Las Madres) to develop an understanding of the seasonal sensitivity of these freshwater systems to the NAO, EA and SCAND circulation modes. The limnological variability within Lake Sanabria is primarily controlled by fluctuations in the seasonal precipitation and wind, and the primary ACMs associated with the winter limnological processes are the NAO and the SCAND modes, whereas only the EA mode appears to weakly influence processes during the summer. However, Lake Las Madres is affected by precipitation, wind and, to a lesser extent, temperature, whereas the ACMs have less influence. Therefore, we aim to show that the lakes of the Iberian Peninsula are sensitive to these ACMs. The results presented here indicate that the lake dynamics, in some cases, have a higher sensitivity to variations in the ACMs than single local meteorological variables. However, certain local features, such as geography, lake morphology and anthropic influences, are crucial to properly record the signals of these ACMs.

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Acknowledgments

The PALEONAO (CGL2010-15767) and RAPIDNAO (CGL2013-40608-R) projects from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Q-SECA project (PTDC/AAG-GLO/4155/2012) from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) funded the research. Armand Hernández is supported by a BPD fellowship from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). We appreciate the cooperation of the responsibles of the “Parque Natural de Sanabria y alrededores” of the Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio de la Junta de Castilla y León (Environmental Council of Castilla and León Autonomous Spanish Region) and owner of the Laboratorio de Limnología del Parque Natural (Laboratory of Limnology of the Natural Park) for whom kindly gave us the data used in this study. We would like to acknowledge the MAR research group from of the University of Murcia for providing the data from the MM5 climate simulation. We also thank Miguel Álvarez-Cobelas who makes available all the data employed from Lake Las Madres by means of the website http://www.redote.org/estacion-laguna-madres.htm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Ciências, Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Armand Hernández & Ricardo M. Trigo

  2. Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Campus UAB, Edifici C, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain

    Sergi Pla-Rabes

  3. Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB), Spanish Research Council (CSIC), Accés Cala St Francesc 14, 17300, Blanes, Catalonia, Spain

    Sergi Pla-Rabes

  4. Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC), Av. Montañana 1005, 50059, Saragossa, Spain

    Blas L. Valero-Garcés & Mayte Rico-Herrero

  5. Departamento de Física, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo (Edificio CIOyN), 30100, Murcia, Spain

    Sonia Jerez

  6. Laboratory of Limnology of the Lago de Sanabria Natural Park, Eras 1, 49300, Puebla de Sanabria, Zamora, Spain

    José C. Vega

  7. Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de los Caidos, s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain

    Margarita Jambrina-Enríquez

  8. Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (ICTJA-CSIC), Lluís Solé i Sabarís s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Santiago Giralt

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  1. Armand Hernández
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  2. Ricardo M. Trigo
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  4. Blas L. Valero-Garcés
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  7. José C. Vega
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  8. Margarita Jambrina-Enríquez
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  9. Santiago Giralt
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Correspondence to Armand Hernández.

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Hernández, A., Trigo, R.M., Pla-Rabes, S. et al. Sensitivity of two Iberian lakes to North Atlantic atmospheric circulation modes. Clim Dyn 45, 3403–3417 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2547-8

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