We are now near to the summer season on our lakes again. This marks the fourth installment of my lake stratification (layers) and mixing articles. Once the ice melts off the lake, the lake goes through another period of mixing like it did back in the fall. [Read more…]
May 2, 2013 By
Water under the ice: winter layers and oxygen levels
We’ve actually had a real Minnesota winter this year, and we currently have a good thick ice cover. Today is the third installment of my articles about lake layers and mixing. We already talked about summer stratification and fall turnover; so what happens to the water under the ice in the winter? [Read more…]
May 2, 2013 By
Fall turnover in our lakes
The temperature has cooled lately and the wind has picked up. These are the ingredients needed for fall turnover in our lakes. A couple months ago I wrote about how the lakes separated into layers in the summer, which is called stratification. To recap, the layering of lakes has to do with the relationship between water density and temperature. [Read more…]
May 2, 2013 By
Right now, lakes are like layer cakes
Have you noticed lately while swimming that the surface water in the lake is very warm and deeper water is cooler? At this time in the summer, the lakes are separated into vertical layers like a cake; limnologists call this phenomenon stratification. Stratification is a major reason our Minnesota lakes behave the way they do. To understand lake stratification, we first must address the relationship between water density and temperature. Water is unique in that it is denser as a liquid than a solid; therefore, ice floats. If ice sank, our lakes would behave much differently in the winter! [Read more…]