Epilimnion and metalimnion thermal water temperature variables in Moroccan’s Lakes using a one-dimensional fresh-water lake model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lakes play an important role in the local weather formation and generate specific climate features over the adjacent land. This is caused primarily by the dramatic difference between the lake surface temperature and the temperature of surrounding land that is observed almost always, except when both lake and land are covered by snow. There are also sharp discontinuities at the water bodies’ boundaries of other thermodynamic, radiation and aerodynamic surface characteristics, such as roughness height and albedo. This, in turn, causes significant spatial heterogeneity of surface turbulent and radiation fluxes in regions densely occupied by lakes and other water bodies. A one-dimensional lake model has been used to simulate the thermal water temperature variables, over a 35-yr period. This model is highly parameterized and is designed for long-term calculations of lake thermodynamics at low computational costs and with minimum adjustment. An epilimnion and metalimnion temperatures variables are presented. The result analysis shows that epilimnion temperatures increased, while metalimnion temperatures decreased. On the other hand, an abrupt change in epilimnion temperature after 1998 and 2006 in Lake Sidi Ali; and after 1989, and 1982 for Sidi Boughaba Lake, caused by climate change. The predictive model can be used to obtain a first-order estimation of water temperature in Moroccan's Lakes, affected by climate change.