Tuesday October 15, 2024
Tahoe Daily Tribune —
As temperatures rise, particularly in alpine regions, lakes are feeling the heat. Research published today in the journal Science, led by researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science, indicates that climate change impacts critical winter processes including lake ice conditions. Changes in lake ice conditions impact the function of ecosystems and the communities that live nearby. With climate affecting this critical winter process one can ask, what other critical changes to freshwaters might occur from changing winters whether at Lake Tahoe, or the small lakes and streams in the mountains of California and Nevada?
Sudeep Chandra, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, was part of the study and has been studying lake ecosystems for over two decades.
“Winter change from a human-altered climate is an important area of focus for scientists and policy makers,” Chandra said. “We need to learn more about how this change in winter, whether from snowpack dropping on to a watershed or the loss of lake or stream-ice, may have lasting ramifications for what we might observe in the ice-free summer season.”