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Shifting patterns of lake color phenology in over 26,000 US lakes
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  • Simon N. Topp,
  • Tamlin M Pavelsky,
  • Hilary A. Dugan,
  • Xiao Yang,
  • John R Gardner,
  • Matthew Richard Voss Ross
Simon N. Topp
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Tamlin M Pavelsky
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Hilary A. Dugan
University of Wisconsin–Madison
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Xiao Yang
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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John R Gardner
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Matthew Richard Voss Ross
Colorado State University
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Abstract

Lakes are often defined by seasonal cycles. The seasonal timing, or phenology, of many lake processes, such as primary productivity, are changing in response to human activities. However, long-term records exist for few lakes, and extrapolating patterns observed in these lakes to entire landscapes is exceedingly difficult using the limited number of in situ observations that are available. Limited landscape level observations means we do not know how common shifts in lake phenology are at macroscales. Here, we use a new remote sensing dataset, LimnoSat-US, to analyze U.S. summer lake color phenology between 1984 and 2020 across more than 26,000 lakes. Our results show that summer lake color seasonality can be generalized into five distinct phenology groups that follow well-known patterns of phytoplankton succession. The frequency with which lakes transition from one phenology group to another is tied to lake and landscape level characteristics. Lakes with high discharge and low variation in their seasonal extent are generally more stable while lakes in areas with high interannual variations in climate and catchment population density show less stability. Our research reveals previously unexamined spatiotemporal patterns in lake seasonality and demonstrates the utility of LimnoSat-US, which, with over 22 million remote sensing observations of lakes, creates novel opportunities to systematically examine changing lotic ecosystems at a national scale.
May 2021Published in Water Resources Research volume 57 issue 5. 10.1029/2020WR029123