World’s Largest Lake is Heating Up

Lake Baikal in Siberia, the oldest, largest and deepest freshwater lake on the planet, is responding much more strongly to climate change than once thought. A National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored collaboration between American and Russian researchers reveals a significant impact on this unique ecosystem, despite the lake’s immense size and remote location. Analyzing a 60-year dataset, the researchers found that Lake Baikal’s average water temperature has increased 1.2 degrees Celsius over the last 100 years (three times faster than global air temperature) and the number of ice-free days has increased by 18. This last point is particularly significant because several species in the lake depend on ice to complete their life cycle. These trends raise serious concern over the future of the world’s most biologically diverse lake.

Lake Baikal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 because of its stunning diversity of flora and fauna (2500 animal species, including the planet’s only freshwater seal), a large portion of which are found nowhere else in the world. It was thought that the lake’s volume (20 percent of the world’s surface water) and unique current patterns might buffer it from the effects of global warming. However, the most recent data indicate that this is not the case.

The tale behind this study begins in 1945, when a Siberian researcher began collecting water samples and other environmental data from the lake. His daughter followed in his footsteps, and now his granddaughter continues the work in her position at Irkutsk State University. The data first came to international attention when Marianne Moore, an instructor from Wellesley College, took her students on an ecology field trip to the lake. A collaboration was formed with Stephanie Hampton, director of the NSF-funded National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. The joint U.S.-Russian team continues to analyze the data to predict future effects of climate change and other human impacts.

Source: NSF