Unforgiving Climate Change: Even Arctic Lakes are Drying Up

Bodies of water have been drying up all over the world, including some Arctic lakes. This is due to climate change.

The Arctic is no stranger to loss as glaciers melt, wildlife suffers, and habitats are lost at a record rate as the region warms up nearly four times faster than the rest of the world.

The New Threat: Drying Up Arctic Lakes

New research led by Elizabeth Webb, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Florida - Department of Biology, has revealed a new threat: the disappearance of Arctic lakes.

According to Webb's research, the pan-Arctic, which includes the northernmost regions of Canada, Greenland, Russia, Scandinavia, and Alaska, has experienced a decline in the size of its Arctic lakes or their complete drying out over the past 20 years.

The results provide information on the causes of the mass drying as well as suggestions for slowing the loss.

The Arctic ecosystem is supported by disappearing lakes.

They offer local Indigenous communities as well as industries a vital source of fresh water.

Species that are threatened or endangered, such as migratory birds and aquatic life, also depend on the habitats of lakes to survive.

Rain Thaws Permafrost

The lake's decline is unexpected.

Scientists had anticipated that as a result of ground ice melting, climate change would at first cause lakes to spread across the tundra before drying out in the middle of the 21st or 22nd century.

According to Webb, the thawing permafrost, the frozen soil that covers the Arctic, may drain lakes and cancel out this expansion effect.

The team hypothesized that by forming drainage channels and accelerating soil erosion into the lakes, permafrost melting could result in a reduction in the lake area.

According to Webb, their research suggested that permafrost thawing is happening even more quickly than the general public had thought.

It also shows that the area is probably headed toward increased landscape-scale drainage in the coming years.

The study also found that lake drainage and permafrost degradation are caused by rising autumn rainfall in addition to rising temperatures.

Jeremy Lichstein, a co-author of the study, said that although it may seem counterintuitive, increasing rainfall reduces surface water. It turns out, though, that the physical explanation was previously documented in scientific literature.

Permafrost next to the lakes is probably not thawing as quickly as it should be because of the lake expansion that lake dynamics predicted would happen.

According to Webb, the trade-offs are not immediately obvious, but lake expansion results in orders of magnitude greater carbon losses than are seen in the nearby areas.

Read also: Melting Arctic Ice Could Transform New International Shipping Routes Reducing Carbon Footprint 

The Approach

Webb's team identified broad trends in the change of surface water across the Arctic using satellite data to arrive at their conclusions.

Satellite imagery also referred to as remote sensing, aids in addressing general inquiries.

Satellite imagery also referred to as remote sensing, aids in addressing general inquiries, according to Webb.

The research team looked at the mechanisms of climate change responsible for changes in lake areas using a machine-learning approach.

They were able to examine decades' worth of data across the Arctic by utilizing massive ensembles of satellite photos to evaluate patterns of surface water loss.

To query huge data sets and run models, their work depended on powerful programs, such as Google Earth Engine and the Python platform on UF's HiPerGator supercomputer.

Webb originally intended to investigate surface reflectivity or Arctic albedo.

Although surface water is a significant contributor to changes in albedo, Webb has had difficulty finding studies that explain why these changes are occurring.

Recent studies suggested that reducing fossil fuel emissions may be the best way to preserve permafrost and prevent the loss of the lakes, Phys Org reported.

Related article: Arctic Tundra to Disappear in 30 Years Due to Climate Change