Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS36 Dealing With Scales in Aquatic Ecology: Structure and Function in Aquatic Ecosystems (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Time: 12:15:00 PM

Location: San Miguel

Cyr, H, , University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, helene@zoo.utoronto.ca

HOW DOES THE SCALING OF TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY VARY BETWEEN DIFFERENT TYPES OF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS?

Temperature is more variable on land than in aquatic systems, and Steele (1985) suggested that temperature variability over 50-100 years also remains more constant on land than in the oceans. I tested the possibility that this pattern extends to aquatic systems of different sizes, with small lakes and rivers resembling terrestrial systems, and very large lakes behaving more like oceans. The variance spectra of long-term temperature data were compared at 3 terrestrial sites, 6 rivers, 15 lakes that ranged in size from a 0.5 ha pond to the Great Lakes, and 9 ocean sites. The spectra of temperature variability in lakes and rivers were intermediate between those in air and in the ocean. The rates of increase in temperature variability over time (i.e. slopes of power spectra) in lakes were closely related to the depth of their epilimnion and possibly to their mixing regime. Coastal sites, both in the Great Lakes and in the ocean, showed more even variability at different time scales than offshore sites. The thermal environment in different types of aquatic ecosystems differs in predictable ways.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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