The distribution of depth, volume, and basin shape for lakes in the conterminous United States

Abstract

Depth regulates many attributes of aquatic ecosystems, but relatively few lakes are measured, and existing datasets are biased toward large lakes. To address this, we used a large dataset of maximum (Zmax; n = 16,831) and mean (Zmean; n = 5,881) depth observations to create new depth models, focusing on lakes < 1,000 ha. We then used the models to characterize patterns in lake basin shape and volume. We included terrain metrics, water temperature and reflectance, polygon attributes, and other predictors in a random forest model. Our final models generally outperformed existing models (Zmax ; root mean square error [RMSE] = 8.0 m and Zmean ; RMSE = 3.0 m). Our models show that lake depth followed a Pareto distribution, with 2.8 orders of magnitude fewer lakes for an order of magnitude increase in depth. In addition, despite orders of magnitude variation in surface area, most size classes had a modal maximum depth of ~ 5 m. Concave (bowl‐shaped) lake basins represented 79% of all lakes, but lakes were more convex (funnel‐shaped) as surface area increased. Across the conterminous United States, 9.8% of all lake water was within the top meter of the water column, and 48% in the top 10 m. Excluding the Laurentian Great Lakes, we estimate the total volume in the conterminous United States is 1,057–1,294 km3, depending on whether Zmax or Zmean was modeled. Lake volume also exhibited substantial geographic variation, with high volumes in the upper Midwest, Northeast, and Florida and low volumes in the southwestern United States.