Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Changing Face Of Winter: Lessons And Questions From The Laurentian Great Lakes, Ted Ozersky, Andrew J. Bramburger, Ashley K. Elgin, Henry A. Vanderploeg, Jia Wang, Jay A. Austin, Guy Meadows, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Among its many impacts, climate warming is leading to increasing winter air temperatures, decreasing ice cover extent, and changing winter precipitation patterns over the Laurentian Great Lakes and their watershed. Understanding and predicting the consequences of these changes is impeded by a shortage of winter-period studies on most aspects of Great Lake limnology. In this review, we summarize what is known about the Great Lakes during their 3–6 months of winter and identify key open questions about the physics, chemistry, and biology of the Laurentian Great Lakes and other large, seasonally frozen lakes. Existing studies show that winter conditions have …