20 Nov. 2015 - Claudia Dresti

Limnological research on Lake Maggiore:
from historical data to the impact of future climate scenarios

Presenta: Claudia Dresti
CNR Istituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi, Verbania Pallanza

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is important to analyze the effects of climate change on lake ecosystems, as they are early warning indicators of changes in climate conditions; furthermore, their physical and chemical structure may be strongly affected by global warming. Several studies have shown that climate change is expected to induce prolonged periods of stratification, and less frequent overturns: this can affect nutrient and oxygen levels in lake water, with an overall effect on water quality.
The seminar will be focused on Lake Maggiore, one of the biggest and deepest lakes in Italy, with the aim of evaluating the vertical extent of the overturn and assessing its possible relationship with the inter-annual variations of air temperature.
Studies on the physical limnology of Lake Maggiore have been carried out at the Institute of Ecosystem Study since the 1950s and have included temperature profiles since 1953. Historical temperature data have been collected in order to create a common database for the Institute. The seminar will highlight the importance of using these data to analyze the possible response of Lake Maggiore to the air temperature change scenario foreseen by IPCC for the next 30 years, with special attention to the thermal stratification and deep-water dynamics.

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