Remote areas in Canada’s Arctic region – once thought to be beyond the reach of human impact – are responding rapidly to warming global temperatures, the University of Toronto's Igor Lehnherr has found.
His research, published in Nature Communications, is the first to aggregate and analyze massive data sets on Lake Hazen, the world’s largest lake by volume located north of the Arctic Circle.
“Even in a place so far north, it’s no longer cold enough to prevent the glaciers from shrinking,” says the U of T Mississauga geographer and lead author of the study. “If this place is no longer conducive for glaciers to grow, there are not many other refuges left on the planet.
“This study provides a high-level complete data set where all components of the watershed have been studied, and reveals how different components, such as lake ice coverage, permafrost, glaciers, terrestrial environment or the lake food web, are responding to climate change over time.”
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