Fifty years of limnological data on Lake Stechlin, a temperate clearwater lake
- Sabine Wollrab
- Silke R. Schmidt
- Jason Woodhouse
- Peter Kasprzak
- Stella A. Berger
- Ute Beyer
- Matthias Bodenlos
- Johanna Dalchow
- Monika Degebrodt
- Lars Ganzert
- Thomas Gonsiorczyk
- Elfi Huth
- Christine Kiel
- Lutz Küchler
- Lothar Krienitz
- Maren Lentz
- Elke Mach
- Uta Mallok
- Jens C. Nejstgaard
- Monika Papke
- Armin Penske
- Solvig Pinnow
- Reingard Roßberg
- Diethelm Ronneberger
- Michael Sachtleben
- Adelheid Scheffler
- Hans-Peter Grossart
- Peter Casper
- Mark O. Gessner
- Rainer Koschel
2025-06-18
We present 50 years of monitoring data on water quality of Lake Stechlin, a deep, dimictic hardwater lake in northeastern Germany known for its exceptionally clear water. Although located in a forested catchment, the lake has undergone major changes in recent decades, including a period of massive heating of surface water when receiving cooling water from a nearby nuclear power plant (1966–1990), accompanied by a greatly shortened water residence time from more than 40 years to less than 300 days. These changes are superimposed by a long-term trend of surface water warming and a concomitant decrease in winter ice cover. Total phosphorus concentrations have quadrupled since 2010 and zones of deep-water oxygen depletion have greatly expanded. The presented dataset covers basic water-chemical and physical records taken at monthly to fortnightly intervals from 1970 to 2020, documenting limnological changes during that period. Furthermore, it serves as a valuable basis to assess and project potential consequences of climate change and other types of environmental change on deep clearwater lakes in temperate climates.