Thermal regimes of groundwater- and lake-fed headwater streams differ in their response to climate variability

Abstract

Stream thermal regimes are being altered by climate change with consequences for aquatic organisms. Most documented long-term changes in stream temperature are from large rivers. We know less about water temperature trends for small headwater streams, especially those found in northern landscapes that contain small lakes. We analyzed 36 yr of stream temperature observations from a long-term watershed study in Ontario, Canada, to understand how headwater streams are responding to climate variability. We found that groundwater-fed (GWF) and lake-fed (LF) streams exhibit contrasting responses, as GWF streams warmed in the spring (0.19–0.60°C per decade) and LF streams warmed in the fall (0.39–0.72°C per decade). Both stream types exhibited weak temperature trends in summer and winter. These results highlight that a stream network perspective that includes headwater streams and small lakes, and accounts for seasonal changes in thermal regimes, is important for understanding aquatic ecosystem response to climate variability.