Abstract
This paper presents the effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the thermal characteristics of lakes in Poland. In the analysis, the use was made of monthly air temperatures recorded at fifteen meteorological stations, water temperatures of twelve lakes, and Hurrell’s winter NAO indices. Over the study period (1971–2010), there was a marked increase in the temperatures of both, air and lake waters. Depending on the NAO phase, water temperatures were observed to depart from mean values, being markedly higher than average (even by 1°C) in the positive winter NAO phase. The differences in water temperatures were statistically significant in the winter-spring season. In turn, in the negative NAODJFM phase lake water temperatures in winter and spring were markedly lower than average (in March even by 1.0°C). The unique response of some lakes depends on their morphometric parameters, including their mean depth.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Reference
Bryś, K., and T. Bryś (2002), Effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation on changes in humidity, radiation, dynamic and evaporation conditions in Wrocław-Swojc in the years 1946–2000. In: A.A. Marsz and A. Styszyńska (eds), Oscylacja Północnego Atlantyku i jej rola w kształtowaniu zmienności warunków klimatycznych i hydrologicznych Polski, Wyd. Uczelniane Akademii Morskiej, Gdynia, 147–162 (in Polish).
Carleton, A.M. (1988), Meridional transport of eddy sensible heat in winters marked by extremes of the North Atlantic oscillation, 1948/49-1979/80, J. Climate1, 2, 212–223, DOI: 10.1175/1520-0442(1988)001<0212:MTOESH>2.0.CO;2.
Choiński, A. (2006), Catalogue of Polish Lakes, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań (in Polish).
Choiński, A. (2007), Physical Limnology of Poland, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań (in Polish).
Choiński, A., and M. Ptak (2012), Variation in the ice cover thickness on Lake Samołęskie as a result of underground water supply, Limnol. Rev. 12, 3, 133–138, DOI: 10.2478/v10194-012-0053-5.
Cieśliński, R., and M. Major (2012), Differences in the abiotic parameters of water in coastal lakes in the light of the EU water framework directive: An example of the Polish southern Baltic coast, Acta Geophys. 60, 4, 1159–1179, DOI: 10.2478/s11600-012-0018-8.
D’Odorico, P., J.C. Yoo, and S. Jaeger (2002), Changing seasons: An effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation? J. Climate 15, 4, 435–445, DOI: 10.1175/1520-0442(2002)015<0435:CSAEOT>2.0.CO;2.
Edmundson, J.A., and A. Mazumder (2002), Regional and hierarchical perspectives of thermal regimes in subarctic, Alaskan lakes, Freshwater Biol. 47, 1, 1–17, DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2427.2002.00775.x.
Ewert, A. (1973), The issue of the thermal continentality of climate in Poland and Europe against the continentality of the globe, Prace Stud. Inst. Geogr. UW 211, Klimatol. 6, 17–27 (in Polish).
Falarz, M. (2007), Snow cover variability in Poland in relation to the macro- and mesoscale atmospheric circulation in the twentieth century, Int. J. Climatol. 27, 15, 2069–2081, DOI: 10.1002/joc.1505.
Gerten, D., and R. Adrian (2001), Differences in the persistency of the North Atlantic Oscillation signal among lakes, Limnol. Oceanogr. 46, 2, 448–455, DOI:10.4319/lo.2001.46.2.0448.
Gerten, D., and R. Adrian (2002), Effects of climate warming, North Atlantic Oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation on thermal conditions and plankton dynamics in northern hemispheric lakes (review), The Sci. World J. 2, 586–606, DOI: 10.1100/tsw.2002.141.
Girjatowicz, J.P. (2011), Effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation on water temperature in southern Baltic coastal lakes, Ann. Limnol. Int. J. Limnol. 47, 1, 73–84, DOI: 10.1051/limn/2010031.
Houser, J.N. (2006), Water color affects the stratification, surface temperature, heat content, and mean epilimnetic irradiance of small lakes, Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 63, 11, 2447–2455, DOI: 10.1139/f06-131.
Hurrell, J.W. (1995), Decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: Regional temperatures and precipitation, Science 269, 5224, 676–679, DOI: 10.1126/science.269.5224.676.
Livingstone, D.M. (1993), Temporal structure in the deep-water temperature of four Swiss lakes: A short-term climatic change indicator? Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol. 25, 75–81.
Livingstone, D.M., and M.T. Dokulil (2001), Eighty years of spatially coherent Austrian lake surface temperatures and their relationship to regional air temperature and the North Atlantic Oscillation, Limnol. Oceanogr. 46, 5, 1220–1227, DOI: 10.4319/lo.2001.46.5.1220.
Marsz, A., and A. Styszyńska (2001), North Atlantic Oscillation and Air Temperature in Poland, Wyższa Szkoła Morska, Gdynia, 107 pp. (in Polish).
Novikmec, M., M. Svitok, D. Kočický, F. Šporka, and P. Bitušík (2013), Surface water temperature and ice cover of Tatra Mountains lakes depend on altitude, topographic shading, and bathymetry, Arct. Antarct. Alp. Res. 45, 1, 77–87, DOI: 10.1657/1938-4246-45.1.77.
Nowlin, W.H., J.M. Davies, R.N. Nordin, and A. Mazumder (2004), Effects of water level fluctuation and short-term climate variation on thermal and stratification regimes of a British Columbia reservoir and lake, Lake Reserv. Manage. 20, 2, 91–109, DOI: 10.1080/07438140409354354.
Ottersen, G., B. Planque, A. Belgrano, E. Post, P.C. Reid, and N.C. Stenseth (2001), Ecological effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation, Oecologia 128, 1, 1–14, DOI: 10.1007/s004420100655.
Przybylak, R., G. Wójcik, and K. Marciniak (2003), Influence of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillations on the thermal conditions in the cold season in Poland from 16th to the 20th centuries, Prz. Geof. 48, 1–2, 61–74 (in Polish).
Rogers, J.C. (1997), North Atlantic storm track variability and its association to the North Atlantic Oscillation and climate variability of northern Europe, J. Climate 10, 7, 1635–1647, DOI: 10.1175/1520-0442(1997)010<1635:NASTVA>2.0.CO;2.
Skowron, R. (2011), The Differentation and the Changeability of Choin Elements of the Thermal Regime of Water in Lakes on Polish Lowland, Wyd. Nauk. UMK, Toruń, 346 pp. (in Polish).
Straile, D., and R. Adrian (2000), The North Atlantic Oscillation and plankton dynamics in two European lakes–two variations on a general theme, Glob. Change Biol. 6, 6, 663–670, DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2486.2000.00350.x.
Straile, D., K. Jöhnk, and H. Rossknecht (2003), Complex effects of winter warming on the physicochemical characteristics of a deep lake, Limnol. Oceanogr. 48, 4, 1432–1438, DOI: 10.4319/lo.2003.48.4.1432.
Styszyńska, A. (2001), North Atlantic Oscillation and precipitation on the territory of Poland, Prace Stud. Geogr. 29, 232–241 (in Polish).
Šporka, F., D.M. Livingstone, E. Stuchlík, J. Turek, and J. Galas (2006), Water temperatures and ice cover in lakes of the Tatra Mountains, Biologia 61, 18, S77–S90, DOI: 10.2478/s11756-006-0121-x.
Trigo, R.M., T.J. Osborn, and J.M. Corte-Real (2002), The North Atlantic Oscillation influence on Europe: climate impacts and associated physical mechanisms, Climate Res. 20, 1, 9–17, DOI: 10.3354/cr020009.
Wang, S., X. Qian, B.P. Han, L.C. Luo, and D.P. Hamilton (2012), Effects of local climate and hydrological conditions on the thermal regime of a reservoir at Tropic of Cancer, in southern China, Water Res. 46, 8, 2591–2604, DOI:10.1016/j.watres.2012.02.014.
Wibig, J. (2001), Impact of the Atmospheric Circulation on Spatial Distributions of Air Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies in Europe, Wyd. Uniw. Łódz., 208 pp. (in Polish).
Wrzesiński, D., M. Ptak, and A. Baczyńska (2013), Effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation on ice phenomena on selected lakes in Poland over the years 1961-2010, Quaest. Geogr. 32, 3, 119–128, DOI: 10.2478/quageo-2013-0020.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Wrzesiński, D., Choiński, A. & Ptak, M. Effect of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the Thermal Characteristics of Lakes in Poland. Acta Geophys. 63, 863–883 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1515/acgeo-2015-0001
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/acgeo-2015-0001