Lakes worldwide feel the heat from climate change <https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lakes-worldwide-feel-heat-climate-change> Warming waters are disrupting freshwater fishing and recreation.
When most people think of the physical effects of climate change, they picture melting glaciers, shrinking sea ice or flooded coastal towns (SN: 4/16/16, p. 22 <https://www.sciencenews.org/article/changing-climate-10-years-after-inconvenient-truth>). But observations like those at Stannard Rock [lighthouse on reef in Lake Superior] are vaulting lakes into the vanguard of climate science. Year after year, lakes reflect the long-term changes of their environment in their physics, chemistry and biology. “They’re sentinels,” says John Lenters, a limnologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. ...Globally, observations show that many lakes are heating up <http://www.laketemperature.org/> — but not all in the same way or with the same ecological consequences. In eastern Africa, Lake Tanganyika is warming relatively slowly, but its fish populations are plummeting, leaving people with less to eat. In the U.S. Upper Midwest, quicker-warming lakes are experiencing shifts in the relative abundance of fish species that support a billion-dollar-plus recreational industry. And at high global latitudes, cold lakes normally covered by ice in the winter are seeing less ice year after year — a change that could affect all parts of the food web, from algae to freshwater seals. …Understanding such changes is crucial for humans to adapt to the changes that are likely to come, limnologists say. Indeed, some northern lakes will probably release more methane into the air as temperatures rise — exacerbating the climate shift that is already under way. Read on here <https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lakes-worldwide-feel-heat-climate-change>. For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ If you have questions about this list please contact the list manager, Tom Shelley, at t...@cornell.edu.
