Geographically paired lake-reservoir dataset derived from the 2007 USA EPA National Lakes Assessment

Climate change poses a significant threat to lake and reservoir ecosystems, though the exact nature of these threats may differ between lakes and reservoirs. To assess differences between lakes and reservoirs that may influence their response to climate change, we compared catchment and waterbody attributes of 132 geographically paired lakes and reservoirs from the 2007 United States Environmental Protection Agencys National Lakes Assessment (NLA) dataset. The data include the NLA IDs of each waterbody and their elevation, catchment area, surface area, perimeter, maximum depth, residence time, Secchi disk depth, surface temperature, and bottom temperature. Residence time data was collected from estimates generated by Brooks, J.R., J.J. Gibson, S.J. Birks, M.H. Weber, K.D. Rodecap, J.L. Stoddard. 2014. Stable isotope estimates of evaporation: inflow and water residence time for lakes across the United States as a tool for national lake water quality assessments. Limnology and Oceanography 59(6):2150-2165.