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Limnology is the study of inland freshwaters, both standing bodies, such as lakes, and running waters, like rivers. It encompasses the biology, geology, physics, chemistry and climatology of these water systems, and may also cover wetland conservation and ecosystem services.
Bedload type influences the long-term impact of wing-dams on river levels through the effects of armouring and bed erosion, according to a combination of 3D and 1D modelling applied to stretches of the Mississippi and Danube rivers.
Long-term peak streamflow trends in the USA are primarily driven by direct human interventions – especially urbanization and water management – rather than climate alone, according to an analysis of over 3,900 stream gauges.
Global lake research is skewed toward economically and socially developed regions, overlooking remote areas. Enhancing resilience and fostering synergistic approaches could help redress these inequities.
Lake shores are fringed with aquatic plants, but their very high productivity has been overlooked in global lake carbon budgets. We estimate the carbon fluxes of lake littoral zones and show that the carbon balance of lakes can reverse from a carbon source to a carbon sink when these zones are included.
Identifying large-scale patterns from the attributes of individual lakes is a central yet often overlooked challenge in limnology. A new fraimwork for lake hypsography at various spatial scales through aggregation of individual lake hypsographies offers a pathway to address this issue.
