Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The surface layer of a liquid body, used in reference to a reservoir or body of water

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἐπί (epi, "upon") + λιμνίον (limnion), diminutive of λίμνη (limnē, "lake").

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Examples

  • Bio-energetic modeling of juvenile populations of lake trout in the epilimnion of Toolik Lake suggests that they will not survive a 3°C increase in mean July epilimnetic temperatures given existing ration, and would require a greater than eight-fold increase in food to achieve historical end-of-year sizes [16].

    Climate change effects on arctic freshwater fish populations 2009

  • The lake's water is permanently stratified, having a warm epilimnion overlying a cooler hypolimnion and is remarkably clear.

    Lake Malawi National Park, Malawi 2009

  • This oxygen distribution results most often when oxygen consumption from decomposition exceeds oxygen inputs as the rate of organic matter sinking from the epilimnion is slowed upon entering the colder, denser metalimnetic water, allowing greater time for decomposition to occur in this layer of water.

    Chemical properties of lakes 2008

  • The metalimnetic oxygen maximum distribution occurs when the oxygen content in the metalimnion is supersaturated in relation to levels in the epilimnion and hypolimnion.

    Chemical properties of lakes 2008

  • In oligotrophic (unproductive) lakes that undergo thermal stratification in the summer, the oxygen content of the epilimnion decreases as the water temperature increases.

    Chemical properties of lakes 2008

  • In eutrophic lakes that are stratified, concentrations of N2 may decline in the epilimnion because of reduced solubility as temperatures rise and increase in the hypolimnion from denitrification of nitrate (NO3) to nitrite (NO2) to inorganic nitrogen (N2).

    Chemical properties of lakes 2008

  • The oxygen content of the hypolimnion is higher than that of the epilimnion because the saturated colder water from spring turnover experiences limited oxygen consumption.

    Chemical properties of lakes 2008

  • The prevailing westerly summer winds cause a thick epilimnion to develop at the southeastern end of the lake, whereas an absent or thin epilimnion is present in the western end.

    Lake Ontario, Ontario 2007

  • Enhanced algae growth in the reservoir consumes the oxygen in the epilimnion and, as it decays, the mass sinks to the already oxygen-deficient hypolimnion, where decay processes reduce the oxygen concentration even further, resulting in acid conditions at lower levels and the dissolution of minerals from the reservoir bed.

    Chapter 8 2000

  • Two samples were taken culated at the observed water temperatures and then corrected within the epilimnion when it was ≤ 15 m thick;

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

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