Search

[Display omitted] • Anthropogenic impact has warming effect on the LSWT. • When human activities cause a 1℃ increase in LSWT, the overall average increase in LSWT is 0.24℃. • The impact of human social policies on the surface water temperature of lakes will continue. In the past 40 years, the surface water temperature of lakes worldwide has generally shown an upward trend, with a significant spatial heterogeneity. Previous studies generally attributed the change in lake surface water temperature to direct impact of climate change. However, few studies have explored the potential impact of additional anthropogenic factors, resulting in an incomplete understanding of the anthropogenic influence on lake surface water temperatures. We thus propose a new method to quantify the anthropogenic impact on the surface water temperature of lakes. We selected 11 lakes characterized by significant variations in the intensity of watershed urbanization development on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in China for an empirical study, and discussed the trend of LSWT (lake surface water temperature) changes under the anthropogenic impact, as well as the potential link between these changes and human social policies. The research results show that (1) The mean annual rate of change in LSWT due to anthropogenic impact fluctuates of 0.06℃ per year. (2) LSWT is sensitive to changes in anthropogenic activities; a 1℃ increase in LSWT due to anthropogenic factors typically results in a mean temperature variation of 0.24℃. (3) During the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, LSWT on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau was significantly affected by anthropogenic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]