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Over half of world’s largest lakes, reservoirs in decline

Over half of world’s largest lakes, reservoirs in decline thumbnail

A study published Thursday revealed that over 50% of the planet’s biggest lakes and reservoirs are experiencing a decline, posing a significant threat to the future water security of humanity.

The study identifies climate change and unsustainable consumption as the primary factors responsible for this concerning trend.

 

 

“Lakes are in trouble globally, and it has implications far and wide,” Balaji Rajagopalan, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author of the paper, which appeared in Science, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“It really caught our attention that 25% of the world’s population is living in a lake basin that is on a declining trend,” he continued, meaning some two billion people are impacted by the findings.

 

 

Unlike rivers, which have hogged scientific attention, lakes aren’t well monitored, despite their critical importance for water security, said Rajagopalan.

But high-profile environmental disasters in large water bodies like the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea signaled to researchers a wider crisis.

To study the question systematically, the team, which included scientists from the United States, France, and Saudi Arabia, looked at Earth’s biggest 1,972 lakes and reservoirs, using observations from satellites from 1992 to 2020.

They focused on larger freshwater bodies because of the better accuracy of satellites at a larger scale, as well as their importance for humans and wildlife.

 

 

17 Lake Meads lost

Their dataset merged images from Landsat, the longest-running Earth observation program, with water surface height acquired by satellite altimeters, to determine how lake volume varied over nearly 30 years.

The results: 53% of lakes and reservoirs saw a decline in water storage, at a rate of approximately 22 gigatons a year.

Over the whole period studied, 603 cubic kilometers of water (145 cubic miles) was lost, 17 times the water in Lake Mead, the United States’ largest reservoir.

To find out what drove the trends, the team used statistical models incorporating climate and hydrologic trends to tease out natural and human-driven factors.

For natural lakes, much of the net loss was attributed to climate warming as well as human water consumption.

Increased temperatures from climate change drive evaporation, but can also decrease precipitation in some places.

“The climate signal pervades all factors,” said Rajagopalan.

Lead author Fangfang Yao, a visiting fellow at CU Boulder, added in a statement: “Many of the human and climate change footprints on lake water losses were previously unknown, such as the desiccations of Lake Good-e-Zareh in Afghanistan and Lake Mar Chiquita in Argentina.”

Losses in humid regions

One surprising aspect was that lakes in both wet and dry regions of the world are losing volume, suggesting the “dry gets drier, wet gets wetter” paradigm that is frequently used to summarize how climate change affects regions, doesn’t always hold.

Losses were found in humid tropical lakes in the Amazon as well as Arctic lakes, demonstrating a trend more widely spread than predicted.

Accumulating sedimentation was blamed for storage loss in drying reservoirs.

But although most global lakes were dwindling, nearly a quarter saw significant increases in their water storage.

These included the Tibetan Plateau, “where glacier retreat and permafrost thawing partially drove alpine lake expansion,” the paper said.

Hilary Dugan, a scientist who studies freshwater systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and who wasn’t involved in the study, told AFP the research advanced scientific understanding of lake volume variability, which is of “huge importance.”

It is “unique in that it focuses on specific lakes, and reports the amount of water as a volume,” she said.

But she added: “It’s important to keep in mind that many water supplies are from small lakes and reservoirs,” and future research should consider these too.

Globally, freshwater lakes and reservoirs store 87% of the planet’s liquid freshwater, underscoring the urgency of new strategies for sustainable consumption and climate mitigation.

“If a good chunk of freshwater lakes are drying, then you’re going to see the impact come to you one way or the other, if not now in the not-too-distant future,” said Rajagopalan.

“So it behooves all of us to be good stewards.”

| Daily Sabah



33 Comments on "Over half of world’s largest lakes, reservoirs in decline"

  1. Dreamer in the land of dreams on Sun, 21st May 2023 3:16 pm 

    Sooo, the glass is nearly half full. Good!
    Science can fix this.
    Fusion plants will convert seawater, solved.
    String nanocarbon sheets over lakes, limit evaporation.
    12 Billion here we come.

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  3. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK On This Day... May 22, 2013: London, England An off-duty soldier is brutally hacked to death by two converts following the Quran: 1 Killed on Mon, 22nd May 2023 11:57 pm 

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  4. Dredd on Tue, 23rd May 2023 6:50 am 

    Meanwhile, a large lake is forming in California (California battles a ‘ghost lake’).

  5. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK perhaps elite master race chink supertards wont be able to save us from supremacist muzzies on Wed, 24th May 2023 12:32 pm 

    The former Apple engineer, identified as 35-year-old Weibao Wang, previously resided in Mountain View, California, and was hired by Apple in 2016, according to an April indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

  6. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK“So great was the stench in the bay,” which was awash with countless bloated Muslim corpses, “that no man could go near it.” As many as twenty thousand Ottomans and five thousand defenders died on Wed, 24th May 2023 5:31 pm 

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  10. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK on Fri, 26th May 2023 8:03 pm 

    s

  11. Duncan Idaho on Sat, 27th May 2023 12:32 pm 

    Pigs! They are so sleazy—

    California cops illegally share info with
    anti-abortion states, civil rights groups say

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/california-cops-illegally-share-info-18122150.php

    Rightwing cowards

  12. Jerome Mosby on Sat, 27th May 2023 7:33 pm 

    Ukraine sabotages Russian pipelines. Crude futures trade higher. Must be OPEC’s fault, right?

  13. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK supremacist muzzies 2016.08.12 England Levenshulme 0 1 A Muslim convert stabs a man six times from behind while shouting praises to Allah. I appoint all supertards supertard their title is 'the lover' of supremacist muzzies on Sat, 27th May 2023 7:54 pm 

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  14. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK supremacist muzzies 2016.07.14 France Nice 86 202 A Muslim migrant mows down eighty-six Bastille Day revelers (including ten children) with a truck while shouting praises to Allah. on Tue, 30th May 2023 6:06 am 

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  15. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK supremacist muzzies 2016.07.14 France Nice 86 202 A Muslim migrant mows down eighty-six Bastille Day revelers (including ten children) with a truck while shouting praises to Allah on Tue, 30th May 2023 6:10 am 

    June is Thank UPPERtard for supporting free speech

  16. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK June is Thank UPPERtard Month for supporting free speech on Wed, 31st May 2023 2:10 pm 

    2016.06.13 France Magnanville 2 1 A terrorist stabs a couple to death while shouting praises to Allah.

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  20. ANAL CAPTURE SHOCK elite whitey (((supertard))) YouTuber HANK GREEN MUZZ-19 himself with reckless abandonment GOING TO SAINT PETERS on Fri, 2nd Jun 2023 1:58 pm 

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  21. FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 7th Jun 2023 9:27 pm 

    Here you will get truthful sea ice news and data in CONTEXT, not cheery picked with a spun story by a cock sucking denier. Whoops that’s redundant calling a denier a cocksucker.

    Read scientific analysis on Arctic sea ice conditions. We provide an update during the first week of each month, or more frequently as conditions warrant.

    http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

  22. FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 7th Jun 2023 9:28 pm 

    “After a short break, two more “triple record” days:

    Record high Sea Surface Temperatures
    Record high global air temperatures
    Record low global sea-ice extent

    “This now happed 5 days of the past two weeks. And El Niño hasn’t even (officially) started yet.”

    https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1665676718416207872

  23. FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 7th Jun 2023 9:34 pm 

    Carbon dioxide soars to a new record in Earth’s atmosphere as climate change continues unabated

    “Sadly we’re setting a new record,” said Scripps Oceanography geoscientist Ralph Keeling, who oversees the iconic Keeling Curve record established by his father 65 years ago.

    The carbon dioxide (CO2) level measured in May in Hawaii averaged 424 parts per million, NOAA said. That’s 3 parts per million more than last year’s May average and 51% higher than preindustrial levels of 280 ppm. It also represents the fourth-largest annual increase on record.”

    https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/05/climate-change-carbon-dioxide-soars-to-record-high-in-earths-atmosphere/70289362007/

    Sadly? The implications when combined with all the other Overshoot predicaments & problems, looks to end all human suffering before this century is over. That’s the opposite of sad.

  24. FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 7th Jun 2023 9:35 pm 

    “World climatic history writes a new incredible page today with an extreme heat wave in Siberia.

    “Temperatures exceeded 38C between lat 55N/57N. 38.3C [100.9F] Kurgan; 37.9C Jalturovosk – hottest day in history! (for any month); 36.8C Tjumen June record; 36.2C Vikulovo June record. etc”

    https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1665030325062316033

  25. FamousDrScanlon on Wed, 7th Jun 2023 9:49 pm 

    Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Extent

    Key Takeaway:

    Summer Arctic sea ice extent is shrinking by 12.6% per decade as a result of global warming.

    September Arctic sea ice is now shrinking at a rate of 12.6% per decade, compared to its average extent during the period from 1981 to 2010. This graph shows the size of the Arctic sea ice each September since satellite observations started in 1979. The monthly value shown is the average of daily observations across the month of September during each year and is measured from satellites.

    Sea ice extent is one of three key sea ice metrics. Other measurements include:

    Arctic sea ice volume
    Arctic sea ice age

    https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/

    Watch 25 Years of Arctic Sea Ice Disappear in 1 Minute

    “Since the 1980s, the amount of perennial ice in the Arctic has declined. This animation tracks the relative amount of ice of different ages from 1987 through early November 2015. The oldest ice is white; the youngest (seasonal) ice is dark blue. Key patterns are the export of ice from the Arctic through Fram Strait and the melting of old ice as it passes through the warm waters of the Beaufort Sea. In 1985, 20% of the Arctic ice pack was very old ice, but in March 2015, old ice only constituted 3% of the ice pack.”

    https://youtu.be/Fw7GfNR5PLA

  26. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 4:10 pm 

    “Epic day! Over 40C [104F] in Siberia, dozens of records obliterated.

    “Over 45C [113F] in China and 43C in Kazakhstan north of 45 latitude. A historic heat wave which is rewriting world climatic history which is set to get much worse. We might see close to 50C in China, yes FIFTY you read it.”

    https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1666439634941796366

  27. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 4:11 pm 

    49.5C [121F] Turbat in Pakistan – New 2023 World highest temperature; June record heat in India: 43.5C Purnea and 32.2C Tadong; 48.0C Matam in Senegal – RECORD June day in Senegal!” [We’ve seen extended record heat in Senegal and Manipur recently; can’t be helping with the civil unrest in those locations].

    https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1666514705215528992

  28. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 4:12 pm 

    “Record event in Siberia in its worst heat wave in history. Dozens of records fell, the most important all time records today:

    “39.6 Baevo [103.3F]; 38.5 Barnaul; 38.1 Ordynskoe tie; 37.3 Novosibirsk; 37.2 Toguchin; 36.4 Mariinsk; 36.1 Masljanino tie; 35.6 Tomsk tie; 35.4 Tjuhtet;
    35.1 Bogotol.”

    https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1666483367850778624

  29. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 4:13 pm 

    “More and more record warmth in Australia.

    “16 more stations today set a record of highest Tmin. in June,including long POR stations like Gabo Island with 16.7C [62.1F], Jabiru with 26.3C, Rutherglen with 14.0C and others.”

    https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1666599627091505153

  30. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 5:52 pm 

    Retard simple graph even climate deniers can understand.

    THE VOLUME OF ARCTIC SEA ICE IS DECREASING!

    https://zacklabe.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/plot_siv_annual_max-min_piomas_graphic_2023.png

  31. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 6:03 pm 

    High plains drought ravages Oklahoma, Kansas wheat farms

    ” For decades, Kansas led the nation in wheat production, and the U.S. led the world in wheat exports.

    But this year’s meager wheat harvest turns that proud tradition on its head both in Kansas and Oklahoma.

    Kansas flour mills will likely buy wheat grown in Eastern Europe. It’s like Texas importing oil, West Virginia hauling in coal, or the Saudis shipping in sand.

    Aaron Harries, Vice President of Research and Operations at Kansas Wheat, said it’s never happened before.”

    https://www.kosu.org/energy-environment/2023-06-06/high-plains-drought-ravages-oklahoma-kansas-wheat-farms

    “..it’s never happened before.”

    Well get use to it. 2 loud mouth denier states just go kicked in the nuts by global warming. In a decade, 2023’s harvest will look like a bounty from heaven.

  32. FamousDrScanlon on Thu, 8th Jun 2023 6:08 pm 

    90% Peach Crops Destroyed by 3 Months of Warming Climate in Georgia

    https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/56753/20230601/90-peach-crops-destroyed-3-months-warming-climate-georgia.htm

    The cure to American obesity has begun.

  33. fnaf security breach on Mon, 3rd Jul 2023 3:00 am 

    The article provided me with a large amount of knowledge, helping me to expand my knowledge. you can access: fnaf security breach unblocked

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