scholarly journals Climate change scenarios for Great Lakes Basin ecosystem studies

1996 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 903-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda D. Mortsch ◽  
Frank H. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Ecosystem Studies

scholarly journals Assessment of impact of climate change on water resources: a long term analysis of the Great Lakes of North America

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. McBean ◽  
H. Motiee
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
North America ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Global Circulation Models ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In the threshold of the appearance of global warming from theory to reality, extensive research has focused on predicting the impact of potential climate change on water resources using results from Global Circulation Models (GCMs). This research carries this further by statistical analyses of long term meteorological and hydrological data. Seventy years of historical trends in precipitation, temperature, and streamflows in the Great Lakes of North America are developed using long term regression analyses and Mann-Kendall statistics. The results generated by the two statistical procedures are in agreement and demonstrate that many of these variables are experiencing statistically significant increases over a seven-decade period. The trend lines of streamflows in the three rivers of St. Clair, Niagara and St. Lawrence, and precipitation levels over four of the five Great Lakes, show statistically significant increases in flows and precipitation. Further, precipitation rates as predicted using fitted regression lines are compared with scenarios from GCMs and demonstrate similar forecast predictions for Lake Superior. Trend projections from historical data are higher than GCM predictions for Lakes Michigan/Huron. Significant variability in predictions, as developed from alternative GCMs, is noted. Given the general agreement as derived from very different procedures, predictions extrapolated from historical trends and from GCMs, there is evidence that hydrologic changes particularly for the precipitation in the Great Lakes Basin may be demonstrating influences arising from global warming and climate change.

scholarly journals Climate change impacts on Great Lakes Basin precipitation extremes

2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (18) ◽  
pp. 10,799-10,812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc d'Orgeville ◽  
W. Richard Peltier ◽  
Andre R. Erler ◽  
Jonathan Gula
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Precipitation Extremes ◽  
Great Lakes Basin

scholarly journals Historical Spatiotemporal Trends in Snowfall Extremes over the Canadian Domain of the Great Lakes Basin

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine A. Baijnath-Rodino ◽  
Claude R. Duguay
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Wind Gust ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Adaptation Studies ◽  
Oak Ridge ◽  
Spatiotemporal Trends ◽  
Minimum Air Temperature

The Laurentian Great Lakes Basin (GLB) is prone to snowfall events developed from extratropical cyclones or lake-effect processes. Monitoring extreme snowfall trends in response to climate change is essential for sustainability and adaptation studies because climate change could significantly influence variability in precipitation during the 21st century. Many studies investigating snowfall within the GLB have focused on specific case study events with apparent under examinations of regional extreme snowfall trends. The current research explores the historical extremes in snowfall by assessing the intensity, frequency, and duration of snowfall within Ontario’s GLB. Spatiotemporal snowfall and precipitation trends are computed for the 1980 to 2015 period using Daymet (Version 3) monthly gridded interpolated datasets from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Results show that extreme snowfall intensity, frequency, and duration have significantly decreased, at the 90% confidence level, more so for the Canadian leeward shores of Lake Superior than that of Lake Huron, for the months of December and January. To help discern the spatiotemporal trends is snowfall extremes, several trend analyses for lake-induced predictor variables were analysed for two cities, Wawa and Wiarton, along the snowbelts of Lakes Superior and Huron, respectively. These variables include monthly maximum and minimum air temperature, maximum wind gust velocity, lake surface temperature, and maximum annual ice cover concentration. Resultant significant increase in December’s maximum and minimum air temperature for the city of Wawa may be a potential reason for the decreased extreme snowfall trends.

scholarly journals Assessment of impacts of climate change on water resources – a case study of the Great Lakes of North America

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 3183-3209 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. McBean ◽  
H. Motiee
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Lake Superior ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract. Historical trends in precipitation, temperature, and streamflows in the Great Lakes are examined using regression analysis and Mann-Kendall statistics, with the result that many of these variables demonstrate statistically significant increases ongoing for a six decade period. Future precipitation rates as predicted using fitted regression lines are compared with scenarios from Global Climate Change Models (GCMs) and demonstrate similar forecast predictions for Lake Superior. Trend projections from historical data are, however, higher than GCM predictions for Michigan/Huron. Significant variability in predictions, as developed from alternative GCMs, is noted. Given the general agreement as derived from very different procedures, predictions extrapolated from historical trends and from GCMs, there is evidence that hydrologic changes in the Great Lakes Basin are likely the result of climate change.

Dynamical Downscaling over the Great Lakes Basin of North America Using the WRF Regional Climate Model: The Impact of the Great Lakes System on Regional Greenhouse Warming

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (21) ◽  
pp. 7723-7742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Gula ◽  
W. Richard Peltier
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North America ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Water Temperature ◽  
Lake Water ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Model ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Lake Model ◽  
The Impact

The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) is employed to dynamically downscale global warming projections produced using the Community Climate System Model (CCSM). The analyses are focused on the Great Lakes Basin of North America and the climate change projections extend from the instrumental period (1979–2001) to midcentury (2050–60) at a spatial resolution of 10 km. Because WRF does not currently include a sufficiently realistic lake component, simulations are performed using lake water temperature provided by D.V. Mironov’s freshwater lake model “FLake” forced by atmospheric fields from the global simulations. Results for the instrumental era are first compared with observations to evaluate the ability of the lake model to provide accurate lake water temperature and ice cover and to analyze the skill of the regional model. It is demonstrated that the regional model, with its finer resolution and more comprehensive physics, provides significantly improved results compared to those obtained from the global model. It much more accurately captures the details of the annual cycle and spatial pattern of precipitation. In particular, much more realistic lake-induced precipitation and snowfall patterns downwind of the lakes are predicted. The midcentury projection is analyzed to determine the impact of downscaling on regional climate changes. The emphasis in this final phase of the analysis is on the impact of climate change on winter snowfall in the lee of the lakes. It is found that future changes in lake surface temperature and ice cover under warmer conditions may locally increase snowfall as a result of increased evaporation and the enhanced lake effect.

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