Scientists have said shallow lakes in Canada’s subarctic regions are drying up at a rate not seen in 200 years as climate change has brought reduced snowfall.
Researchers from several Canadian universities, reporting their studies in the journal Geophysical Research Letter, said they came to this conclusion after studying 70 lakes.
The scientists said most of the lakes were less than a metre deep, on relatively flat terrain in the province of Manitoba and the Yukon Territory.
The problem, they reported, is mainly caused by a lack of melt water from the reduced snowfall.
“With this type of lake, precipitation in the form of snow represents 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the annual water supply,” said study lead author Dr Frederic Bouchard, a postdoctoral fellow at Universite Laval in Quebec City.
The kind of desiccation seen by the researchers is without precedent in two centuries, they said.
This conclusion was drawn from analyses of the remains of phytoplankton accumulated in lake bed sediment that showed the lakes had maintained water balance for 200 years.
If the trend of dry summers and less snowy winters is ongoing, many of the subarctic’s shallowest lakes could dry out completely, the researchers said.
“It’s difficult to predict all the repercussions of this habitat loss,” Dr Bouchard said, “but it’s certain that the ecological consequences will be significant.”
Researchers studied the environment around the lakes and found that most of them are located on a level territory encompassed by inadequate vegetation, which are additionally hinting at parching, or drying out.
