Decoupling air and water: how throughflow shapes mountain lake temperatures
Abstract
While mountain lakes are seen as sentinels of climate change, their thermal response may be less pronounced than their exposure and sensitivity initially suggest. We hypothesize herein that the snowmelt-generated throughflow explains the apparent decoupling between atmospheric and water temperatures in mountain lakes. This study quantifies the advective heat flux of Lake Lioson, a Swiss lake at 1,848 m elevation, over 2023–2024. We compare the advective heat flux, estimated using a water balance method, with the discrepancies between measured daily heat content changes and net vertical heat fluxes. During snowmelt, the lake heat storage was decoupled from the surface heat exchanges, with 33–42% of vertical heat flux lost to advection. Contrasting snowpack conditions between 2023 and 2024 resulted in a 10% difference in heat accumulation and a 3-meter variation in thermocline depth. The snowpack plays a key role in lake thermal dynamics, extending beyond snowmelt. Advective heat fluxes led to a cooling of up to 3.9 °C. Based on the seasonal contributions of vertical and advective heat fluxes, we propose a three-phase framework as a valuable basis for comparing the thermal responses of different alpine lakes to snow and atmospheric forcing.
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BibTeX
@article{herr2026decoupling,
title = {{Decoupling air and water: how throughflow shapes mountain lake temperatures}},
author = {Isabel Elena Herr and Damien Bouffard and Marie-Elodie Perga},
journal = {Inland Waters},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1080/20442041.2026.2634018},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05780486v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Decoupling air and water: how throughflow shapes mountain lake temperatures
AU - Isabel Elena Herr
AU - Damien Bouffard
AU - Marie-Elodie Perga
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/17
JO - Inland Waters
DO - 10.1080/20442041.2026.2634018
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05780486v1
AB - While mountain lakes are seen as sentinels of climate change, their thermal response may be less pronounced than their exposure and sensitivity initially suggest. We hypothesize herein that the snowmelt-generated throughflow explains the apparent decoupling between atmospheric and water temperatures in mountain lakes. This study quantifies the advective heat flux of Lake Lioson, a Swiss lake at 1,848 m elevation, over 2023–2024. We compare the advective heat flux, estimated using a water balance method, with the discrepancies between measured daily heat content changes and net vertical heat fluxes. During snowmelt, the lake heat storage was decoupled from the surface heat exchanges, with 33–42% of vertical heat flux lost to advection. Contrasting snowpack conditions between 2023 and 2024 resulted in a 10% difference in heat accumulation and a 3-meter variation in thermocline depth. The snowpack plays a key role in lake thermal dynamics, extending beyond snowmelt. Advective heat fluxes led to a cooling of up to 3.9 °C. Based on the seasonal contributions of vertical and advective heat fluxes, we propose a three-phase framework as a valuable basis for comparing the thermal responses of different alpine lakes to snow and atmospheric forcing.
SN - 2044-2041
SN - 2044-205X
ER -