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Lake stratification is the tendency of lakes to form separate and distinct thermal layers during warm weather. Typically stratified lakes show three distinct layers: the epilimnion, comprising the top warm layer; the thermocline (or metalimnion), the middle layer, whose depth may change throughout the day; and the colder hypolimnion, extending to the floor of the lake.
Lake stratification is stable in summer and winter, becoming unstable in spring and fall when the surface waters cross the 4°C mark. The thermal stratification of lakes is a vertical isolation of parts of the water body from mixing caused by variation in the temperature at different depths in the lake, and is due to the density of water ...
The epilimnion or surface layer is the top-most layer in a thermally stratified lake.. The epilimnion is the layer that is most affected by sunlight, its thermal energy heating the surface, thereby making it warmer and less dense.
If a lake is eutrophic and has a high sediment oxygen demand, the hypolimnion in dimictic lakes can become hypoxic during summer stratification, as often seen in Lake Erie. During summer stratification, most lakes are observed to experience internal waves due to energy input from winds. If the lake is small (less than 5 km in length), then the ...
Similar to light zonation, thermal stratification or thermal zonation is a way of grouping parts of the water body within an aquatic system based on the temperature of different lake layers. The less turbid the water, the more light is able to penetrate, and thus heat is conveyed deeper in the water. [ 17 ]
'lake'. [2] It is the layer that lies below the thermocline. Typically the hypolimnion is the coldest layer of a lake in summer, and the warmest layer during winter. [1] In deep, temperate lakes, the bottom-most waters of the hypolimnion are typically close to 4 °C throughout the year. The hypolimnion may be much warmer in lakes at warmer ...
Polymictic lakes are holomictic lakes that are too shallow to develop thermal stratification; thus, their waters can mix from top to bottom throughout the ice-free period.. Polymictic lakes can be divided into cold polymictic lakes (i.e., those that are ice-covered in winter), and warm polymictic lakes (i.e., polymictic lakes in regions where ice-cover does not develop in winter).
In the winter, inverse stratification occurs as water near the surface cools freezes, while warmer, but denser water remains near the bottom. A thermocline is established, and the cycle repeats. [1] [2] Seasonal stratification in temperate lakes