Interaction of water quantity with water quality: the Lake Chapala example (original) (raw)
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Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 2011
Tropical regions along the Andean Cordillera face an uncertain future as mountain lakes and snow peaks exhibit receding trends associated with factors such as climatic precursors and local anthropogenic activities. Tota, the largest mountain lake in the Colombian Andes, exemplifies the role played by these factors on the lake's hydrologic evolution. A monthly water balance in Tota Lake was performed using available hydrological information from 1958 to 2007 to address interannual and multiannual level fluctuations associated with human activities and climatic precursors. The balance shows that net water uses fluctuated around 2 m 3 /s during this period with a pattern that, although constrained during years of severe decline in lake levels, is able to explain most of the multiannual decaying trend of 1.5 cm/year in the last 50 years. The lake's naturalized levels were used to determine the influence of climate precursors on the lake evolution. Using Multichannel Singular Spectrum Analysis (M-SSA), significant five-year ENSO and 20-year PDO related quasi-oscillations were detected, explaining 54% of the variance associated with mean annual naturalized level fluctuations. ENSO is markedly in-phase with lake levels, with critical declines associated with low precipitation and high evaporation rates during El Niño years, whereas the PDO signal exhibits a phase opposition with lake levels, with low naturalized levels during a positive PDO phase and high levels during a negative PDO phase (an important result to consider given the current cooling trend of the PDO signal).
Rain Variability and Population Growth to Explain Historical Levels of the Patzcuaro Lake in Mexico
Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 2016
The height variability of Lake Patzcuaro, in central Mexico, remained constant for several decades, and during that period, the lake maintained its functionality and environmental services. However, in the last twenty years, there has been a significant decrease in the variability range. In order to estimate the water balance, in this work, an approach was developed to understand how water moves in time and space, and to determine possible inherent thresholds to lake variability. The historical Lake Patzcuaro height above 2035 masl was correlated with several climatic variables. The correlation with monthly rainfall shows that there is a delay of three months, indicating that the lake volume depends on three factors: precipitation, surface runoff and underground contribution, of which precipitation over the lake surface is the least significant. In the long term, using annual data, there is a remarkable memory of precipitation extending beyond five years, seen as a correlation with the accumulated precipitation anomaly (r 2 = 0.76). This behavior should be explained by understanding relationship between the lake and its aquifer. Also important is the population growth, which affects the lake level in two ways: water extraction and water discharge. The models pointed out a nonlinear relationship between water level and the aforementioned variables, and suggest that the carrying capacity of the basin is around 90 thousand people, under current patterns of water consumption. It also indicates that, in order to allow lake recovery or to maintain system resilience, the anomaly of precipitation accumulated during several years should exceed 1000 mm. Although a correlation with land use was attempted, historical data do not reflect a trend that could be associated with water balance.
Long-term and extreme water level variations of the shallow Lake Poopó, Bolivia
Hydrological Sciences Journal, 2006
Lake Poopó, within the large Altiplano basin of Bolivia, is connected upstream to Lake Titicaca and downstream to the salares, the big salt fields. Small changes in precipitation and river inflows strongly affect the extent of the lake surface area. For times when there are no satellite images, it is difficult to determine the extent of the lake from observations. Water balance computations were performed to create a water-level series for Lake Poopó extending back in time. The dominant water inflow to Lake Poopó is from the River Desaguadero, which constitutes the outflow of Lake Titicaca. The water-balance computations confirm the crude peasant knowledge about historical lake status. It is found that if the lake level is less than 1 m during the wet season, there is a risk that this shallow lake dries out in the dry season.
Climatic trends, water balance and lake Pátzcuaro, a tropical high altitude lake
Quaternary International, 1997
The results of a hydrological study are presented with implications for water budget and regional climatic fluctuations. Lake Patzcuaro is a tropical freshwater high altitude lake located at the southern edge of the Mexican Plateau. The lake originated from tecto-volcanic processes associated with the Eje Neovolcanic Transversal during the late Tertiary and Quatemary. The lake is an endhoreic basin and the annual water balance is primarily controlled by differences between rainfall and evaporation. Since annual evaporation is higher than rainfall, it is considered that net water inputs to the lake come as seepage from the drainage area. However, by using a simple mass simulation model it is illustrated that the contribution of seepage is being reduced due to the continuous deterioration of the catchment area.
Cunha_et_al-2018-Hydrological_Processes.pdf
Stable isotopes analyses of oxygen (18O) and hydrogen (2H) of lake water were used to estimate the effect of evaporation (E) on the water quality of four shallow lakes in the Amapá State coast – Amazon/Brazil. These lakes, with different size and hydrologic conditions, were sampled during the course of the 2015/2016 El-Niño (record-breaking warming/drought in the Amazon rainforest). Hydrometeorological and water quality parameters were simultaneously performed to the isotopic sampling. The results showed that the evaporation process and the water quality can be explained by climate season and distances from the Atlantic Ocean. Lake evaporation losses ranged from ≈0-22% during the wet season in April/2016 and ≈35.7% during the dry season in November/2015. As expected, the evaporation of lake water was greater during the dry season, but it was higher for lakes farther away from the Atlantic Ocean compared to more coastal lakes due to tidal preponderance and the influence of major river channels. The more inland estuarine lakes showed a lower level of salinity (0.00-0.03ppt) compared to those closer to the Atlantic Ocean (0.01-0.08ppt). The El Niño phenomenon, with a lower precipitation in the Amazon basin, may initiate salinization of lakes closer to the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, strong mean seasonal variations of evaporation (0.06≤E≤0.22) and other hydrologic parameters were observed (precipitation, water temperature and water depth), with significant effects on the water quality such as salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll (p<0.05). We conclude that the occurrence of the extreme climatic events can disrupt the biogeochemical and hydrological balance of these aquatic ecosystems and salinization of lakes closer to the Atlantic Ocean. Keywords: Deuterium Excess, Hydrological Processes, Extreme Drought, Evaporation
Lake Chad is one of Africa's largest fresh water resources, boarded by four countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria) and supports the lives of over 30 Million people living around the lake shores. Over the past four decades, Lake Chad has suffered a deterious environmental degradation. Loss of the lakes water due to climate variation has led to increased pressure on the natural resource which in turn has affected the various activities of the people depending on the lakes water. Climate variation coupled with the unsustainable use of the resources is on the increase: this has however increased the pressure on the lakes water which has affected the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem, quantity and quality of fresh water, grazing land, reduced fish stocks, siltation and loss of vegetation. Against this back drop, this review examined the emerging and future human risk posed by the diminishing water resource of Lake Chad. It also explored how human influence interacts with the effect of climate change to induce the rapid shrinkage of the lake. It however concluded that, the lakes water resource is getting increasingly vulnerable, this vulnerability is due to several factors such as: over-exploitation of natural resources, widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, high illiteracy rates, conflicts, and dependence of a large share of its economies on climate-sensitive sectors (mainly rain-fed agriculture). These factors, coupled with limited institutional and technological capabilities, have contributed to the region's low adaptive capacity. The high physical sensitivity of the region to climate change has resulted in increased average temperatures and rainfall variability, both of which have severely affected food production, water resources, biodiversity, and human and livestock populations. Measures to protect the lake are not being implemented and hence strategic planning for protection and management of the lakes water needs to be put in place. Human activities need to be monitored and legislations set to checkmate the unsustainable use of the resources.
Impact of Climate Variability on Lake Chamo Water Balance
2014
One of the most significant potential concerns of climate variability is to understand changes in hydrological components and subsequent change in lakes water balance. In view of this studying the water balance components such as surface water inflow from gauged and ungauged sub watersheds, precipitation and evaporation pattern of the natural reservoir and their associated impacts vis-à-vis altering the water balance of terminal Lakes Chamo has a major concern of the present study. It ultimately focuses on evaluating the impact of climate variability on water balance of Lake Chamo, situated in the southern part of the Ethiopian Rift valley lakes basin system. Lake Chamo is the largest lake among Ethiopian Rift valley Lakes system with a total area of 328.63Km 2 and average depth of 10.1m. In order to achieve the above main objective of the study primary analysis various hydro metrological variables of the water balance components undertaken. A conceptual hydrological model that coul...
Multidecadal analysis of Lake Garda water balance
Journal of Limnology, 2023
The accurate closure of the water balance of a lake is often a challenge for managers and practitioners who are asked to preserve the value of lakes as water resources. Lake water balance analysis is extremely useful to reveal climate change effects (Szesztay, 1974;
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2012
Medina playa lake, a Ramsar site in western Andalusia, is a brackish lowland lake of 120 ha with an average depth of 1 m. Water flows into Medina from its 1,748-ha watershed, but the hydrology of the lake has not previously been studied. This paper describes the application of a water budget model on a monthly scale over a 6year period, based on a conceptual hydrological model, and considers different future scenarios after calibration to improve the understanding of the lake's hydrological functioning. Climatic variables from a nearby weather station and observational data (water-level evolution) were used to develop the model. Comparison of measured and predicted values demonstrated that each model component provided a reasonable output with a realistic interaction among the components. The model was then used to explore the potential consequences of land-use changes. Irrigation of olive groves would significantly reduce both the hydroperiod (becoming dry 15% of the time) and the average depth of the lake (water level <0.5 m 40% of the time). On the other hand, removal of an artificial overflow would double the average flooded surface area during high-water periods. The simulated water balance demonstrates that the catchment outputs are dominated by lake evaporation and surface outflow from the lake system to a creek. Discrepancies between predicted and observed water levels identify key areas of uncertainty for future empirical research. The study provides an improved basis for future hydrological management of the catchment and demonstrates the wider utility of this methodology in simulating this kind of system. This methodology provides a realistic appraisal of potential landuse management practices on a catchment-wide scale and allows predictions of the consequences of climate change.