- General considerations
- Lake basins
- Lake waters
- Lake hydraulics
- The hydrologic balance of the lakes
- Major natural lakes of the world
Heat added to a lake at the surface is usually mixed mechanically downward as a result of wind action. This process keeps the upper portion of a lake relatively uniform thermally. Consequently, a thermal gradient (thermocline) becomes established between the upper mixed layer (epilimnion) and the deep portion of the lake (hypolimnion). In shallow lakes or shallow portions of large lakes, the thermocline will eventually intercept the lake bottom so that no hypolimnion exists. Normally, as the heating season progresses, the thermocline intensifies and deepens. Secondary thermoclines may develop in the epilimnion, and these will migrate downward to the main seasonal thermocline. On very warm still days, a thin surface layer may store heat before a mixing episode transfers heat downward. When the cooling season commences, the mixing that tends to destroy the thermocline is enhanced by vertical convection. If the cooling continues until the entire thermocline is eliminated, the lake becomes essentially isothermal and no longer exhibits the characteristics of a two-layered system.
When a lake is stratified, the most important process for downward transfer of heat to the hypolimnion is through eddy conduction. The coefficient of eddy conductivity is determined empirically and varies substantially from lake to lake. Mixing processes are generally more active in coastal areas, so that isotherms can be expected to slope downward toward shore. In large, relatively unprotected lakes, wind stress at the surface causes convergence or divergence or both of shallow waters along coastlines. Isotherms will slant upward toward the shore, and hypolimnion water may even become exposed at the surface. These occurrences are of great importance with regard to the distribution of heat within stratified lakes.
Heat introduced to lakes in large quantities, as a waste product of cooling processes in power-generating plants and other industrial concerns, is presently viewed with some concern as a pollutant, especially in small lakes. If the heat is injected at the surface it will spread initially according to the momentum of the influent and the speed and direction of ambient surface currents. When the initial momentum is sufficiently dissipated, the heat will spread mainly as a consequence of turbulent mixing processes. Throughout these events, substantial losses of heat to the atmosphere may occur, so that the full effects of the thermal input are not borne solely by the lake. Temperature values at the surface, adjacent to the influent-heat source, may be raised to a very high level—as much as several centigrade degrees. Under certain conditions fish-activity tolerances may be exceeded, and undesirable algae and plankton production may be stimulated.
If waste heat is not released at the surface but is diffused over a large depth range or injected at depth, the large local-surface-temperature problem is avoided. Losses to the atmosphere in this case, however, are also greatly reduced, and the net heat input to the lake as a whole is much greater. Over a long period, this may prove to be more detrimental to the general ecology than near-surface injection.
The principal forces acting to initiate water movements in lakes are those due to hydraulic gradients, wind stress, and factors that cause horizontal or vertical density gradients. Lake water movement is usually classified as being turbulent.
Hydraulic effects are frequently the result of inflows and outflows of water. These may be substantial and continuous or weak and sporadic; in terms of the ratio of the volume of the inflow or outflow to the lake volume, the latter is the most frequently observed situation.
The stress of wind moving over the lake surface causes a transport of water within the lake, as well as the movement of energy downwind through the mechanism of surface waves. The wind is therefore one of the most important external forces on a lake. It can be relatively consistent in speed and direction, or it can be highly variable in either or both.