• News
  • Lake Facts
  • About

Lake Scientist

Climate Change To Alter Hydrology Of Lake Michigan Basin

1
  • by Daniel Kelly
  • — November 25, 2014

Lake Michigan had ice cover 10 days earlier in 2014 than the previous year, according to mlive.com. But the basin’s hydrologic cycle that relies on this type of winter precipitation storage may come to an end in the not-too-distant future.

According to a study from the U.S. Geological Survey, climate change threatens to alter hydrology in the Lake Michigan basin by shifting its system to one more relying on waters distributed evenly throughout a given year. The winters of today will be largely undermined by increased air temperatures, authors say, that will likely increase annual streamflows.

lake-michigan-lighthouse

View of lighthouse and Lake Michigan from Lakeshore State Park. (Credit: Flickr User Yinan Chen via Creative Commons 2.0)

Among some of the effects that this hydrological shift may cause, scientists expect:

  • longer growing seasons that may increase evapotranspiration from soil and plants;
  • drier soils in coastal wetlands;
  • increased streamflows in the northern regions of the lake’s basin, namely northern Michigan and northeastern Wisconsin;
  • and more winter flooding due to quickened snowmelt and lower levels of winter snowpack.
Lake_Michigan_Watershed

Map of the Lake Michigan basin. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons User Drdpw)

Generally speaking, streamflows are expected to increase at most of the study sites. Included in the analysis  were more than 300 USGS stream gauges and NOAA climate stations. It was completed as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by the USGS’ Iowa and Wisconsin Water Science Centers.

Share

You may also like...

  • Swiss hydro plant reservoir emits methane gas
  • predictive e coli modeling Product Spotlight: Vaisala WXT520 Multi-Parameter Weather Sensor
  • Minnesota ‘super sentinels’ provide early detection of climate change’s impact
  • Flash Freeze Ices Great Lakes

1 Comment

  1. G. DeCamp says:
    July 12, 2018 at 8:25 PM

    Your assessment summary includes, as one of the signal effects of a your anticipated hydrological shift, “more winter flooding due to quickened snowmelt and lower levels of winter snowpack.”

    First, quick or slow, the quantity of snowmelt is dependent on total snowpack, not speed of melting. Given any level of snowpack, flooding would result ONLY from sudden temperature increase, and the greater the increase, the briefer the effect for any given amount of snowpack. “Lower levels of winter snowpack” might produce greater sudden melting, but can’t possibly produce more winter flooding in a macro-hydrological sense. Plainly speaking, less snow means less flood risk.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

FishSens SondeCAM HD
  • Recent Posts

    • Research Brief: Influence of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Stressors on HABs in Zhanjiang BaySeptember 22, 2023
    • From the Tap: Source Water Monitoring for Public HealthSeptember 18, 2023
    • Red swamp crawfishResearch Brief: Using Red Swamp Crayfish as Bioindicators of Microplastic PollutionSeptember 15, 2023
    • Choosing the Right Water Quality Monitoring Systems Is Crucial for Stantec Inc.September 11, 2023
    • Elâzığ, TurkeyResearch Brief: Zebra Mussels as Sentinel Species for Monitoring MicroplasticsSeptember 8, 2023
  • Popular Tags

    Great Lakes research research summary pollution Lake Erie invasive species Product Spotlight Algae runoff international Lake Michigan nutrient-loading Ohio dissolved oxygen EPA research brief eutrophication temperature toxic waters climate change USGS phosphorus ice Asian Carp Michigan

©2023 Fondriest Environmental Inc. | Questions? Call 888.426.2151 or email customercare@fondriest.com