Lake Baikal and Climate Change
60 years of studies on Russia's Lake Baikal show warming of the world’s largest lake is a clear signal that climate change has a foothold worldwide.
The lake contains 20 percent of the world's freshwater, and it is large enough to hold all the water in the Great Lakes. It is the world's deepest lake as well as it’s oldest. So, the lake is a good basis for study, and an indicator for other large lakes worldwide.
The study on Lake Baikal reveals, "significant warming of surface waters and long-term changes in the food web of the world's largest, most ancient lake." Also, "Increases in water temperature (1.21°C since 1946), chlorophyll a (300 percent since 1979), and an influential group of zooplankton grazers (335 percent since 1946) have important implications for nutrient cycling and food web dynamics."
Lake Baikal now joins other lakes, including Superior, Tanganyika and Tahoe, in showing warming trends.
May 2, 2008 6:07 AM | Category: Global Warming