Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been monitored in perch (Perca fluviatilis), pike (Esox lucius), and Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) in reference lakes since the late 1960s. Temporal trends and spatial patterns are currently monitored in nine and 32 lakes, respectively. Overall, PCB concentrations are decreasing. However, this is not consistent for all congeners across all lakes and spec...

Long-term water temperature records are necessary for better understanding climate change impacts on freshwaters. We reconstruct summer water temperatures from three climatically sensitive mountain lakes in Austria using paleolimnological methods aiming to examine long-term thermal dynamics and lakes' responses to regional climate variability since the Little Ice Age. Our results indicate diver...

To explore the geographical distribution and temporal trends of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the Great Lakes, lake trout from Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Ontario and walleye from Lake Erie, collected during the period of 1980-2000, were analyzed. The concentrations of fifteen PBDE congeners and one polybrominated biphenyl (PBB-153) were determined in each fish sample. Lake...

Glacier retreat as a consequence of climate change influences freshwater ecosystems in manifold ways, yet the physical and chemical bases of these effects are poorly studied. Here, we characterize how water temperature differs between alpine lakes with and without direct glacier influence on seasonal and diurnal timescales. Using high temporal resolution monitoring of temperature in 4 lakes loc...

Using remote sensing images, we provided the first complete picture of freshwater bodies in mainland China. We mapped 89,700 reservoirs, covering about 26,870 km(2) and approximately 185,000 lakes with a surface area of about 82,232 km(2). Despite relatively small surface area, the total estimated storage capacity of reservoirs (794 km(3)) is triple that of lakes (268 km(3)). Further analysis i...

The theory of island biogeography predicts that the probability of a species occupying an island depends on a dynamic equilibrium between extinction and colonization. Epidermal papillomatosis is a disease manifesting as skin tumours on fish. We studied the factors affecting the occurrence of the disease in roach, Rutilus rutilus (L.), in 34 lakes. The results of discrimination analysis suggest ...

The climate of the Great Lakes Region is determined by the general westerly atmospheric circulation, the latitude, and the local modifying influence of the lakes. Due to the lake effect, the regional climate alternates between continental and semi-marine. The semi-marine climate is more consistent contiguous to the lakes, but with favorable meterological conditions, it may penetrate deeply inla...

Jackson ZJ, Quist MC, Downing JA, Larscheid JG. 2010. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio), sport fishes, and water quality: Ecological thresholds in agriculturally eutrophic lakes. Lake Reserv. Manage. 26:14–22. We examined fish populations, limnological conditions, lake basin morphology and watershed characteristics to evaluate patterns in population characteristics of ecologically important fish sp...

The olfactory system of fish is sensitive to the toxic effects of low concentrations of contaminants. To investigate the effects of long-term metal exposure on olfaction in wild yellow perch (Perca flavescens), fish from one clean (Geneva Lake) and two metal-contaminated lakes (Ramsey and Hannah lakes) were collected in and around the metal-mining district of Sudbury, ON. Two different techniqu...

The Great Lakes constitute the largest body of surface freshwater on earth and are one of the planet's most valuable natural resources. Home to roughly 36 million people, the Great Lakes basin is a major industrial and agricultural region of North America. The Canadian portion of the basin contains one-third of the Canadian population and half of all the manufacturing activity in Canada. The he...