New Hampshire’s Changing Lakes – What to expect in the next few decades

Presented live via Zoom with time for Q&A. Pre-registration is required.

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Lisa Doner, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at Plymouth State University, will present on NH’s changing lakes. New Hampshire’s clean, deep lakes have some of the best water clarity and overall water quality in the United States. They draw tourists and residents to their shores and affect home values and property tax rates in many areas. But recent trends in long-term monitoring data suggest that the lakes are changing, partly in response to climate and partly in response to intensified development in the lake watersheds. Limnologist Dr. Lisa Doner will share the results of her own work on Squam, Ossipee, Newfound, Pleasant and Spofford Lakes, and show how some changes in these lakes line up with global trends.

Dr. Doner is an Associate Professor in Environmental Science and Policy and the Center for the Environment. She studies lake sediments to decipher past watershed changes. Her primary focus is on how climate interacts with other mechanisms for change including natural catastrophe (fire, flood, landslide, tsunami), human disturbance (agriculture, logging, development) and long-term trends (glaciations, tectonics, sea-level change). These projects are globally distributed, with lake sites in Utah, Maine, Baffin Island (Canada), Iceland and Turkey.

Free and open to the public. Presented as part of the Museum’s ongoing virtual Mountain Voices series.