Andean Lakes, a proposal of lake districts

Abstract

The Andes is the world's longest mountain system (8,500 km) and harbour important headwater systems, constituting crucial water resources for South America. Their complex topography significantly influences climate and hydrology. The Andes have a wide diversity of aquatic environments, with more than 5,000 lakes (> 0.1 km², permanent and excluding man-made reservoirs) with different morphometry, including the largest and the deepest in South America (Titicaca and Viedma, respectively). Here we applied a grouping analysis based on available systematised information to delimit different lake districts along the Andes. More than 60% of the surface area of all Andean lakes is concentrated in only nine large lakes, while more than 80% of the lakes have less than a square kilometre area. The analysis proposes eleven lake districts corresponding two to the North Andes, six to the Central Andes and three to the South Andes. Each lake district is described based on the different morphologies, geological origins, climatic factors, and available limnological information. We consider that this study will benefit not only scientists but also decision-makers and stakeholders working in integrated water resources management in a region under climate change and socio-economic inequalities scenarios.

Keywords:

• South American lakes
• lake distribution
• lake types
• grouping analysis

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Acknowledgements

This study was carried out in the frame of the Red Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Limnología LACAN. We thank Kenneth M. Persson for the review and suggestions of the manuscript. Pablo E. Prado thank the Swedish International Development Agency for the funding of the PhD scholarship and the Water Resources Division of the Technology Faculty (LTH) of Lund University. We thank Laura Wolinski, Silvia Ortega, Pedro Temporetti, Sebastián Ochoa, Edgar Goitia, Emilio Vaccari and Diego Balseiro for lake photographs.