Assessment of climate variability and land use effect on shallow lakes in temperate plains of Argentina

BOHN, V.Y.; DELGADO, A.L.; PICCOLO, M.C.; PERILLO, G.M.E.

Environmental Earth Sciences

Springer

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2016

1866-6280

Areal variation in lakes is closely associatedwith other factors such as intensity of land use of thehydrological basins, climatology, geomorphology anddepth. The main objective of this study is to assess therelationship between climatic variability events (El Nin?oSouthern Oscillation, ENSO), land use and shallow lakes?areal variations in the temperate plains of Argentina for theperiod 2002?2011. The standard precipitation evaporationindex (SPEI) was employed in this study in conjunctionwith the oceanic Nin?o index (ONI) and in situ annualprecipitation data to determine wet, dry and normal years. Shallow lakes? areal variation was analyzed by satelliteimagery (MODIS) processing and the variability of theland use intensity was determined based on agriculturalestimations. Frequency in the maximum of shallow lakeareas was relatively more dependent on any changes in therainfall regime (ENSO events) than in the land use (decrease/increase of the cultivated area). The El Nin?o (2002/3) and La Nin?a (2007/8) events clearly affected the precipitationsof the total studied lake regions, with maximumareas in 2002 and minimum in 2008. The results obtainedmay be an important contribution to mitigate flooding anddroughts in the studied area.