Ice Cover Affects Lake Levels in Surprising Ways
newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/27/ice-cover-affects-lake-levels-in-surprising-ways
From the page
Saved with the link. Notes from 2007 to 2016 are mostly the page's own words, so this is probably an excerpt.
The most obvious climate-related change on the Great Lakes is that winter ice cover has declined by 71 percent over the last 40 years, on average. Summer water temperatures and annual evaporation are also on the rise as the climate warms. All of these are important pieces of the climate change puzzle. They are also important factors controlling water level fluctuations and the overall health of the Great Lakes ecosystem, including how chemicals mix and microorganisms sustain life in the lakes themselves.