scholarly journals Extent of Sedge/Grass Meadow in a Lake Michigan Drowned-River-Mouth Wetland Dictated by Topography/Bathymetry and Lake Level

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Wilcox ◽  
John Bateman ◽  
Kurt Kowalski ◽  
James Meeker ◽  
Nicole Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Water Level Fluctuations ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
High Lake Level ◽  
Grass Meadow ◽  
High Lake Levels

Abstract Water-level fluctuations are critical in maintaining the diversity of plant communities in Great Lakes wetlands. Sedge/grass meadows are especially sensitive to such fluctuations. We conducted vegetation sampling in a sedge/grass-dominated Lake Michigan drowned-river-mouth wetland in 1995, 2002, and 2010 that followed high lake levels in 1986 and 1997. We also conducted photointerpretation studies in 16 years dating back to 1965 to include responses to high lake level in 1952 and 1974. Topographic/bathymetric data were collected to assess their influence on areal extent of sedge/grass meadow. Dominant species in short emergent and submersed/floating plant communities changed with water availability from 1995 to extreme low lake levels in 2002 and 2010. Sedge/grass meadow was dominated by Calamagrostis canadensis and Carex stricta in all years sampled, but Importance Values differed among years partly due to sampling in newly exposed areas. Photointerpretation studies showed a significant relation between percent of wetland in sedge/grass meadow and summer lake level, as well as the number of years since an extreme high lake level. From the topographic/bathymetric map created, we calculated the cumulative area above each 0.2-m contour to determine the percent of wetland dewatered in select years following extreme high lake levels. When compared with percent sedge/grass meadow in those years, relative changes in both predicted land surface and sedge/grass meadow demonstrated that accuracy of lake level as a predictor of area of sedge/grass meadow is dependent on topography/bathymetry. Our results regarding relations of plant-community response to hydrology are applicable to other Great Lakes wetlands.

scholarly journals Periodic structures of Great Lakes levels using wavelet analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taner Cengiz
Keyword(s):  
Wavelet Transform ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Periodic Structures ◽  
Lake Superior ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Continuous Wavelet ◽  
Lake Levels

Periodic structures of Great Lakes levels using wavelet analysisThe recently advanced approach of wavelet transforms is applied to the analysis of lake levels. The aim of this study is to investigate the variability of lake levels in four lakes in the Great Lakes region where the method of continuous wavelet transform and global spectra are used. The analysis of lake-level variations in the time-scale domain incorporates the method of continuous wavelet transform and the global spectrum. Four lake levels, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario, and Lake Superior in the Great Lakes region were selected for the analysis. Monthly lake level records at selected locations were analyzed by wavelet transform for the period 1919 to 2004. The periodic structures of the Great Lakes levels revealed a spectrum between the 1-year and 43- year scale level. It is found that major lake levels periodicities are generally the annual cycle. Lake Michigan levels show different periodicities from Lake Erie and Lake Superior and Lake Ontario levels. Lake Michigan showed generally long-term (more than 10 years) periodicities. It was shown that the Michigan Lake shows much stronger influences of inter-annual atmospheric variability than the other three lakes. The other result was that some interesting correlations between global spectrums of the lake levels from the same climatic region were found.

Quantifying recent lake level changes in Patagonia (Argentina and Chile): Back to the future?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ariztegui ◽  
Clément Pollier ◽  
Andrés Bilmes
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Tierra Del Fuego ◽  
Water Level Fluctuations ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rainfall Variations ◽  
The Impact

<p>Lake levels in hydrologically closed-basins are very sensitive to climatically and/or anthropogenically triggered environmental changes. Their record through time can provide valuable information to forecast changes that can have substantial economical and societal impact.</p><p>Increasing precipitation in eastern Patagonia (Argentina) have been documented following years with strong El Niño (cold) events using historical and meteorological data. Quantifying changes in modern lake levels allow determining the impact of rainfall variations while contributing to anticipate the evolution of lacustrine systems over the next decades with expected fluctuations in ENSO frequencies. Laguna Carrilaufquen Grande is located in the intermontane Maquinchao Basin, Argentina. Its dimension fluctuates greatly, from 20 to 55 km<sup>2</sup> water surface area and an average water depth of 3 m. Several well-preserved gravelly beach ridges witness rainfall variations that can be compared to meteorological data and satellite images covering the last ~50 years. Our results show that in 2016 lake level was the lowest of the past 44 years whereas the maximum lake level was recorded in 1985 (+11.8 m above the current lake level) in a position 1.6 km to the east of the present shoreline. A five-years moving average rainfall record of the area was calculated smoothing the extreme annual events and correlated to the determined lake level fluctuations. The annual variation of lake levels was up to 1.2 m (e.g. 2014) whereas decadal variations related to humid-arid periods for the interval 2002 to 2016 were up to 9.4 m. These data are consistent with those from other monitored lakes and, thus, our approach opens up new perspectives to understand the historical water level fluctuations of lakes with non-available monitoring data.</p><p> </p><p>Laguna de los Cisnes in the Chilean section of the island of Tierra del Fuego, is a closed-lake presently divided into two sections of 2.2 and 11.9 km<sup>2</sup>, respectively. These two water bodies were united in the past forming a single larger lake. The lake level was  ca. 4 m higher than today as shown by clear shorelines and the outcropping of large Ca-rich microbialites. Historical data, aerial photographs and satellite images indicate that the most recent changes in lake level are the result of a massive decrease of water input during the last half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century triggered by an indiscriminate use of the incoming water for agricultural purposes. The spectacular outcropping of living and fossil microbialites is not only interesting from a scientific point of view but has also initiated the development of the site as a local touristic attraction. However, if the use of the incoming water for agriculture in the catchment remains unregulated the lake water level might drop dangerously and eventually the lake might fully desiccate.</p><p>These two examples illustrate how recent changes in lake level can be used to anticipate the near future of lakes. They show that ongoing climate changes along with the growing demand of natural resources have already started to impact lacustrine systems and this is likely to increase in the decades to come.</p>

Lake Michigan Beach-Ridge and Dune Development, Lake Level, and Variability in Regional Water Balance

1995 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lichter
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Beach Ridges ◽  
Average Return ◽  
High Lake Level ◽  
High Level ◽  
Regional Water

AbstractA sequence of northern Lake Michigan beach ridges records lake-level fluctuations that are probably related to changes in late Holocene climate. Historically, episodes of falling and low lake level associated with regional drought led to the formation of dune-capped beach ridges. The timing of prehistoric ridge formation, estimated by radiocarbon dating of plant macrofossils from early-successional dune species, shows that return periods of inferred drought, averaged for time intervals of 100 to 480 yr, ranged between 17 and 135 yr per drought during the last 2400 yr. In five of ten of these time intervals, the average return period ranged between 17 and 22 yr per drought. These intervals of frequent ridge formation and drought were associated with the development of parabolic dunes, which is indicative of high lake level and moist climate. This seeming paradox suggests that unusually moist decades alternated with unusually dry decades during these time intervals. Regional water balance probably varied less during the time intervals when ridges formed less often and the lake produced no evidence of high level.

Global Maps of Lake-Level Fluctuations since 30,000 yr B.P.

1979 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Alayne Street ◽  
A. T. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Lake Level ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Literature Survey ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
Lake Level Fluctuations ◽  
Average Abundance ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
High Lake Levels ◽  
Precipitation And Temperature

This paper presents selected world maps of lake-level fluctuations since 30,000 yr B.P. These are based on a literature survey of 141 lake basins with radiocarbon-dated chronologies. The resulting patterns are subcontinental in scale and show orderly variations in space and time. They reflect substantial changes in continental precipitation, evaporation, and runoff, which are due to glacial/interglacial fluctuations in the atmospheric and oceanic circulations. In the tropics, high lake levels are essentially an interglacial or interstadial phenomenon, although there are important exceptions. Since extensive lakes during the Holocene corresponded with relatively high sea-surface temperatures, and therefore presumably with high evaporation rates on land, they are interpreted as the result of higher precipitation. Tropical aridity culminated in most areas at, or just after, the glacial maximum, although the present day is also characterized by a below-average abundance of surface water. In extratropical regions the mapped patterns are more complex. They vary markedly with latitude and proximity to major ice sheets. In these areas, evidence is at present insufficient to evaluate the relative contributions of precipitation and temperature to the observed lake-level record.

scholarly journals HINDCAST WAVE STATISTICS FOR THE GREAT LAKES

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Thorndike Saville, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Erie ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Lake Ontario ◽  
Beach Erosion ◽  
Wave Statistics ◽  
Local Problems ◽  
Existing Data

The General Investigations program of the Beach Erosion Board comprises investigations, regional rather than local in scope, designed to improve, simplify, and expedite the solution of local problems, by giving a compilation of all existing data pertinent to shore processes in the particular region. As a first step in the compilation of these data, a study of wave and lake level conditions on the Great Lakes is being made. The results of such studies for Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario have recently been completed and published as Technical Memorandums of the Beach Erosion Board (Saville, 1953).

Dominance of an ∼150-Year Cycle of Sand-Supply Change in Late Holocene Dune-Building along the Eastern Shore of Lake Michigan

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter L. Loope ◽  
Alan F. Arbogast
Keyword(s):  
Lake Level ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
Eastern Shore ◽  
Soil Burial ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sand Supply

Outcrops of buried soils on lake-plains and glacial headlands along Lake Michigan's eastern shore suggest that periodic dune-building has occurred there after relatively long (≥100 yr) periods of low sand supply. We located, described, and radiocarbon dated 75 such buried soils that crop out in 32 coastal dune fields beside the lake. We assume that peaks in probability distributions of calibrated 14C ages obtained from wood, charcoal, and other organic matter from buried A horizons approximate the time of soil burial by dunes. Plotted against a late Holocene lake-level curve for Lake Michigan, these peaks are closely associated with many ∼150-yr lake highstands previously inferred from beach ridge studies. Intervening periods of lower lake levels and relative sand starvation apparently permitted forestation and soil development at the sites we studied. While late Holocene lake-level change led to development and preservation of prominent foredunes along the southern and southwestern shores of Lake Michigan, the modern dune landscape of the eastern shore is dominated by perched dunes formed during ∼150-yr lake highstands over the past 1500 yr.

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene lake level, glaciation and climate change in the Mongolian Altai deduced from sedimentological and palynological archives

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Michael Klinge ◽  
Frank Schlütz ◽  
Anja Zander ◽  
Daniela Hülle ◽  
Ochirbat Batkhishig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lacustrine Sediments ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Mongolian Altai ◽  
High Lake Levels ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract Glacial and lacustrine sediments from the Mongolian Altai provide paleoclimatic information for the late Pleistocene in Mongolia, for which only a few sufficiently studied archives exist. Glacial stages referred to global cooling events are reported for the last glacial maximum (27–21 ka) and the late glacial period (18–16 ka). Sedimentary archives from the first part of the last glacial period are infrequent. We present proxy data for this period from two different archives (88–63 and 57–30 ka). Due to the limitation of effective moisture, an increase of precipitation is discussed as one trigger for glacier development in the cold-arid regions of central Asia. Our pollen analysis from periods of high paleolake levels in small catchments indicate that the vegetation was sparse and of dry desert type between 42–29 and 17–11 ka. This apparent contradiction between high lake levels and dry landscape conditions, the latter supported by intensified eolian processes, points to lower temperatures and cooler conditions causing reduced evaporation to be the main trigger for the high lake levels during glacier advances. Rising temperatures that cause melting of glacier and permafrost ice and geomorphological processes play a role in paleolake conditions. Interpreting lake-level changes as regional or global paleoclimate signals requires detailed investigation of geomorphological settings and mountain–basin relationships.

scholarly journals Late Quaternary lake-level changes of Lake El'gygytgyn, NE Siberia

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Juschus ◽  
Maksim Pavlov ◽  
Georg Schwamborn ◽  
Frank Preusser ◽  
Grigory Fedorov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Lake Ice ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Northeastern Siberia ◽  
Lake El’Gygytgyn ◽  
High Lake Level ◽  
High Lake Levels

AbstractLake El'gygytgyn is situated in a 3.6 Ma old impact crater in northeastern Siberia. Presented here is a reconstruction of the Quaternary lake-level history as derived from sediment cores from the southern lake shelf. There, a cliff-like bench 10 m below the modern water level has been investigated. Deep-water sediments on the shelf indicate high lake levels during a warm Mid-Pleistocene period. One period with low lake level prior to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 has been identified, followed by a period of high lake level (10 m above present). In the course of MIS 2 the lake level dropped to − 10 m. At the end of MIS 2 the bench was formed and coarse beach sedimentation occurred. Subsequently, the lake level rose rapidly to the Holocene level. Changes in water level are likely linked to climate variability. During relatively temperate periods the lake becomes free of ice in summer. Strong wave actions transport sediment parallel to the coast and towards the outlet, where the material tends to accumulate, resulting in lake level rise. During cold periods the perennial lake ice cover hampers any wave activity and pebble-transport, keeping the outlet open and causing the lake level to drop.

scholarly journals Preliminary Analysis of Middle Holocene Lake-Level Change of Ancestral Lake Michigan, Wentworth Woods, Cook County, Illinois

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Alan Thompson ◽  
Erin Argyilan ◽  
Henry Loope ◽  
John Johnston ◽  
Kenneth Lepper
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Cook County ◽  
Upper Great Lakes ◽  
Lake Level Change ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Level Elevation ◽  
Forest Preserve ◽  
Nipissing Phase

Study of past lake-level change and isostasy in the upper Great Lakes has demonstrated the need to reconstruct relative lake-level history at each outlet during the Nipissing phase of ancestral Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Although elevation and age data exist for the Port Huron/Sarnia and Sault outlets of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, respectively, no paleohydrograph has been created for southern Lake Michigan near the Chicago outlet. The Wentworth Woods area of the Cook County Forest Preserve, Illinois, contains more than 30 beach ridges that formed during the rise and fall from the peak elevation of the Nipissing phase. These relict shorelines were vibracored to recover basal foreshore sediments that can be used as a proxy for lake-level elevation at the time of individual shoreline formation. In addition, sand samples from soil pits and vibracores were collected for optically stimulated luminescence age determinations. This report addresses the sedimentological data used to determine the elevation of the conjoined upper Great Lakes (Lake Nipissing) when each beach ridge formed. The age data will be presented in future reports.

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