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Thermal Structure Monitoring and Related Studies
Executive Summary
Observationally,
perhaps the biggest gap in our knowledge of the physical environment in
the Great Lakes is in being able to provide a detailed description of
the annual evolution of the three-dimensional temperature field and its
year to year variability. This information impacts the annual evolution
of the entire biological community, all the way from the lower food web,
including phytoplankton and zooplankton, on up to fish. Some information
on surface temperature is available from satellite surface temperature
maps and from National Data Buoy Center buoys (NDBC
web site) during the shipping season, but it is not possible to infer
the details of the vertical thermal structure from surface temperature
alone. Therefore, baseline measurements of the detailed horizontal and
vertical distribution of water temperature data with high resolution in
time and space are critically needed to assess interannual variability
of the thermal structure of the Great Lakes, to test three dimensional
model parameterization, to understand vertical mixing processes, and to
aid in interpreting biological and other environmental data. In addition
to making new observations it is equally important to study historical
data sources such as coastal temperature and NDBC buoy data to see what
insights they can provide into system behavior and whether or not any
trends are evident.
The main objectives of this project are:
1. to develop improved climatological information by means of observations,
new instrumentation, and improved analyses of the distribution and variability
of coastal and offshore temperatures and by studying their dependence
on meteorological and hydrological forces, with emphasis on potential
changes in climate
2. to concurrently provide data for improving numerical models that can
simulate and predict the thermal structure in the lakes.
Collaborators
Dave Schwab, GLERL
Gary Fahnenstiel, GLERL
Dima Beletsky, Cooperative Institute for Limnologial and Ecological Research,
(CILER web site)
Tomas Hook, CILER
Edward Rutherford, University of Michigan (UM web site)
Program Accomplishments 2005
The mid-lake ADCP/thermistor mooring was successfully retrieved. Both ADCPs functioned properly as well as the 11 temperature/data loggers.
A new mid-lake mooring was deployed containing 11 temperature data loggers. The ADCPs were not redeployed but were used in Lake Erie instead.
Two multiple author publications were submitted this year.
Milestone Reports
Milestone FY02 Q2 Report on estimates of the Lagrangian time and space scales associated with coastal circulation in southern Lake Michigan.
Milestone FY98 Q2 Report on evaluating the use of natural markers (i.e., time, and the temperature of maximum density) for detecting climate trends in historical water intake temperature data in the Great Lakes region.
South Haven channel: heading out to southern Lake Michigan on mooring retrieval cruise aboard the RV Shenehon
Products
Price, H., S. A. Pothoven, M. J. McCORMICK, P. C. Jensen and G. L. Fahnenstiel. 2003. Temperature influence on commercial Lake Whitefish harvest in eastern Lake Michigan. Journal of Great Lakes Research 29(2):296-300.
Hook, T. O., Rutherford, E., Brines, S., Schwab, D. and M. McCORMICK. Relationships between surface temperatures and the spatial and temporal distributions of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Lake Michigan. J. Great Lakes Res. (submitted)
Hook, T. O., E. S. Rutherford, S. J. Brines, D. M. Mason, D. J. Schwab, M. J. McCORMICK, G. W. Fleischer, T. J. DeSorcie and W. G. Sprules. 2003. Spatially explicit measures of production of young alewives in Lake Michigan: linkage between essential fish habitat and recruitment. Estuaries 26(1):21-29.
Brandt, S. B., Mason, D. M., McCormick, M. J., Lofgren, B., Hunter, T. S., and J. A. Tyler. 2002. Climate Change: Implications for Fish Growth Performance in the Great Lakes. In: Fisheries in a Changing Climate. (N. A. McGinn, ed.) p. 61-75.
Lesht, B.M., J.R. Stroud, M.J. McCORMICK, G.L. Fahnenstiel, M.L. Stein, L.J. Welty, and G.A. Leshkevich. 2002. An event-driven phytoplankton bloom in southern Lake Michigan observed by satellite. 17 April. Geophys. Res. Lett.
Helfand, J. S., Podber, D. P., and M. J. McCORMICK. 2000. Effect of heat flux on thermocline formation. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Estuarine and Coastal Modeling. 114-129.
Fahnenstiel, G. L., Stone, R. A., McCORMICK, M. J., Schelske, C. L., and S. E. Lohrenz. 2000. Spring isothermal mixing in the Great Lakes: Evidence of nutrient limitation in a sub-optimal light environment. Can. J. Fish. and Aquat. Sci. 57(9): 1901-1910.
McCORMICK, M. J., and G. L. Fahnenstiel. 1999. Recent climatic trends in nearshore water temperatures in the St. Lawrence Great Lakes. Limnol. and Oceanog. 44(3):530-540.
McCORMICK, M. J., and D. C. Lam. 1999. Lake Thermodynamics. In Potential Climate Change Effects on Great Lakes Hydrodynamics and Water Quality. D. Lam and W. Schertzer (Eds) ASCE. Reston, Virginia, P.3-1 3-20.
Last updated: 2005-10-20 mbl