Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection t I IBS ^^TKnt'iSi^!?iiiliy IHii f iBIggjg ftamB _..BWBB OnrcrSf ramssagggg _MB9I^HI HUflwungmsf '.'""!''.' JfflHMtfll MBS ffmfjIJllWcW as? Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection PROCEEDINGS OF THE Rochester Academy of Science VOLUME 10 December, 1953 to February, 1963 Rochester, N. Y. Published by the Academy 1963 Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume X Two Studies Concerning the Levels of the Great Lakes 1_26 Melissa E. Bingeman Plantae Durobrivensis I Bernard Harkness 27-30 Notes on Astronomical Photography Paul W. Davis 31-37 Egg Gigantism, Oviposition, and Genital Anatomy: Their Bearing on the Biology and Phylo-Genetic Position of Orussus (Hymenoptera: Siri- coidea) Kenneth W. Cooper 39-68 The Cypcraceae of Monroe and Adjacent Counties, New York Warren A. Matthews and Douglas M. White 69-118 The Tabanidae of New York L. L. Pechuman 121-179 A Study of the Fresh-Water Crustacea (Exclusive of the Copepoda) of the Rochester Area Alice A. Larsen 183-238 Heavy Minerals in the Glacial Drift of Western New York G. Gordon Connally 241-278 Rochester Moonwatch 1959 Annual Report Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Western Satellite Research Network 279-281 A List of the Aphids of New York Mortimer Demarest Leonard 289-428 Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE TWO STUDIES CONCERNING THE LEVELS OF THE GREAT LAKES Melissa E. Bingeman, FRAS 1 1. A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAKE LEVELS AND PRECIPITATION. In the spring of 1948 (when this study was begun), after five years of higher-than-normal levels, Lake Ontario was still more than a foot higher than its monthly mean. Its surface was 247.51 feet above sea- level at mean tide in New York, as against an April mean level of 246.32 feet. For the fourteenth year Lake Ontario was still irregularly rising. By 1952, the 18th year of this irregular rise, it had reached a semi-monthly mean, from June 1 to June 15, of 249.4 feet. This was the highest stage on record. Contrast it with the lowest monthly mean stage recorded, 242.67 feet, in November 1934. A range of almost seven feet is represented. In view of this prolonged trend it was only natural to want to form an intelligent idea of the causes and prospects; and the logical beginning of such an endeavor was a comparison between the level of the lake and the related precipitation. This called for analysis of precipitation over the basins of all the Great Lakes, because Lake Ontario, the last lake in the chain, carries the water coming down from all the others, into the outlet at the St. Lawrence River. The appropriate government departments have all the basic data and supplied these used in this paper. Yet no graph had been made by them comparing the levels of the lakes with precipitation over their basins (Moore, 5-10-48) ; nor had one been made of either basins monthly or annual precipitation means over the lake (Bernard, 5-25-48). Lakes basin The mean annual precipitation for the entire Great from 1883 to 1952, the period of Federal Government records, was 31.38 inches, while the means for the individual lake basins were: Superior, 27.95 inches; Michigan, 31.66 inches; Huron, 31.14 inches; Erie 33.87 inches, and Lake Ontario 35.0 inches. These figures were of the taken from a report by the Corps of Engineers, Department Army (Hiatt, 8-15-52). It is not known how long it takes for waters to pass from Lake Superior to the outlet in the St. Lawrence (Moore, 5-10-48) ; thus precise correlation between rainfall and lake levels is not possible. Also, there are other cryptic factors, such as evaporation, run-off, and under-ground flow to be discussed farther on. Various author- 1 Weather Science Section Rochester Academy of Science. Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection 2 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE ities, however, have expressed themselves on the general relationship that when between precipitation and lake levels. Horton has said lake levels will rise, and a cycle of years with higher rainfall occurs, indicates that the converse (Horton, p. 25). Thomson precipitation the but has some "limited direct influence" on the levels of lakes, to the lake that raw precipitation data cannot be applied directly levels (Thomson, 5-28-48). Townsend tells us that precipitation irregularities in the various lake basins are the principal cause of variations in the lake levels, but that the relation between precipita tion and lake levels is complex, and has not been fully determined that the (Townsend, p. 3). With this opinion Moore agrees, saying levels of the Great Lakes depend primarily upon precipitation over their drainage basins, but that the correlation between precipitation and lake levels is complicated, depending on many factors. He says, however, that several consecutive years of high precipitation results in high levels, while a series of low precipitation years would result in low levels (Moore, 5-10-48). Speaking for the Hydrographic Survey, Canada, Price maintains that the relationship between precip itation on the basins of the Great Lakes and the level of the water in any of these lakes, is "a very debatable question, which is presently under review" (Price, 8-13-52). Chittenden, fifty years earlier, had pointed out that a period of dry years had culminated, in 1895, in the lowest mean levels that Lakes Huron, Michigan and Erie had experienced since commerce on the Lakes had become a matter of moment (Chittenden, p. 357). Freeman, in 1926, stated that the United States Engineers had found a remarkably close relationship between precipitation and lake levels from 1883 to 1898, and that this was recorded in their 1904 Report (Freeman, p. 250). A contrary opinion could not be found anywhere in the records. In the light of this testimony pointing toward some form of relation it seemed desirable to a ship, make graph correlating precipitation over the various lake basins, with lake levels. Therefore, in the summer of 1952, the writer essayed to do this and Chart I is the result. The data used includes figures on mean annual precipitation compiled by the S. U. Lake Survey ; this is plotted upon their hydrographic chart, which shows the monthly mean elevation of the level of each lake. The reliability of all this data can be realized when one considers its source, and the methods used in their collection. While there are several different sets of slightly precipitation data, such as precip itation over the land area of the basins, over the water area, or over the basins as a whole, and while data were available from the U. S. Lake and the Canadian Survey Hydrographic Service, it was the over precipitation the land surface of the basins of the several lakes that was used in Chart I. These data were also given out by the U. S. Weather Bureau. 1 ' ' i 1 i > 4. 41 4' ir If 83 |4 5 litftzS? Mlin *?<* T*M *fi<U*7^<S 00 oi olojot of 0* 07 08 1 10 n 11 13 14 ir It 17 * !<? L* 11 n tit* t* zc 171* 1 j |i |i H J<J111218 4' Uffj|4< jj|41 1 . A. , A /J . tit J [ >, A -A-^. 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