Water depth: maximum water depth (m), Area: lake area at the surface (km2), DT: daytime temperature (oC), NT: nighttime temperature (oC), DTD: diurnal temperature difference (oC), Latitude (degree), Water storage (km3)
3.4.3. Ice cover trend and salinity
On a continental scale, lakes at high latitudes and high altitudes tend to have low LWST and short ice-free duration (Figure 6 and Table 3). Lakes Niagame and Kungasalakh, located near the Arctic Circle, exhibited much shorter ice-free time (average: 56 and 64 days, respectively) compared to Lake Eloygytgyn and Yambuto in eastern Siberia (128 days and 136 days, respectively). Since these lakes are found at similar elevations and are located in the same climatic zone, water chemistry could be a reason for the difference in ice-free duration. It is well known that increased salinity of lake waters can increase ice formation temperature, thus an extension in ice-free duration should be expected for lakes with high salinity (Wang & Dou, 1998). The merit of that contention cannot be determined by the data presented in this study, but it does underscore the need to further investigate how salinity could affect the dynamics of ice formation, the duration of the ice-free period in lakes, and ultimately the response of water temperature in these water bodies to a warming global climate.
Table 3: The top ten lakes (from a set of 1,098 lakes) with the lowest water surface temperature across Eurasia