Trends in Temperature, Secchi Depth, and Dissolved Oxygen Depletion Rates in the Central Basin of Lake Erie, 1983–2002
January 5, 2006
We examined temperature trends in a 20-year set of monitoring records collected at multiple deep-water stations in the central basin of Lake Erie. Data collected were statistically corrected (“deseasonalized”) to remove biases resulting from irregular sampling intervals within years. Depth-integrated summer temperature has increased by an average (±SE) of 0.037 ±0.01°C per year. An observed reduction of Secchi depth (SD) by 7 ±3 cm/y seems to be unrelated to variation in either total phosphorus (TP) or chlorophyll aconcentrations.
