SCYNAPSIS
#ecology
#ecology
#ecology
Image credit by Pablo Avalos Prado
Image credit by Pablo Avalos Prado
Image credit by Pablo Avalos Prado
Pablo Avalos Prado
Pablo Avalos Prado
Pablo Avalos Prado
Neuroscientist & Medical Writer
Neuroscientist & Medical Writer
Neuroscientist & Medical Writer
May 30, 2023
May 30, 2023
May 30, 2023
Decline in water storage highlights urgent need for climate change action
Decline in water storage highlights urgent need for climate change action
Decline in water storage highlights urgent need for climate change action
Water storage has decreased in 53 % of natural large lakes and 64 % of water reservoirs in the last 30 years according to a recent database published in Science.
A group of researchers of the University of Colorado Boulder has recently tracked volume changes of large natural lakes and water reservoirs (which account for 96 and 83 % of Earth’s natural lake and water storages, respectively) from 1992 to 2020. The goal was to address the human and climate change footprints on global water storage changes over decades, a research that has been challenged by the lack of frequency and time gaps exhibited by previous works.
For this work, the authors generated a reliable database by using computational data from 250.000 images taken periodically with different satellites, including CryoSat-2, ENVISAT, ICESat-2 and Sentinel.
The results of this study showed that 53 % of large natural lakes and 64 % of water reservoirs experienced significant water losses during the last three decades, particularly in arid regions. However, 24 % of natural lakes - most of them found in remote and underpopulated areas like Tibet - experienced significant volume increase due to changes in precipitation and runoff.
In total, the ensemble of studied natural lakes lost 600 km3 during the period 1992-2020, equivalent to the total water use in the US for the entire year of 2015. This negative balance led to the complete disappearance of some natural lakes like Lake Zonag in China or Toshka lakes in Egypt, although the largest inland water body, the Caspian Sea, accounted for 71% of the net decline in natural lake volume.
The authors of this work claim that more than half of water loss in lakes comes from direct human activities and increasing temperature and evapotranspiration due to climate change. Moreover, they indicate that there has been an intensified water cycle in a warming climate and a decline in the humid tropics and high-latitude regions over the past three decades.
According to the same study, 64 % large water reservoirs also experienced a significant decline of water storage. Nevertheless, and opposingly to natural lakes, the total large reservoirs showed a net global increase of almost 5 gigatons of water per year, owing to 180 recently filled reservoirs. The authors point to globe-distributed sedimentation as the main reason for storage decline in reservoirs, while wetting trends in certain humid regions like the Nile River and southeastern Canada offset the total balance.
Since one-quarter of the world’s population resides in a basin of a drying lake, the authors of this work warn of the necessity of improving water resources management to decrease the impact of climate change and sedimentation in the future. Moreover, water losses affect both the water and carbon cycles: water storage decline could reduce the amount of absorbed carbon dioxide by lakes and increase carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
The drying trends worldwide are more extensive than previously thought and therefore we urgently must find new ways to control unsustainable water utilization and to manage water resources to face a warmer future.
Original article
Water storage has decreased in 53 % of natural large lakes and 64 % of water reservoirs in the last 30 years according to a recent database published in Science.
A group of researchers of the University of Colorado Boulder has recently tracked volume changes of large natural lakes and water reservoirs (which account for 96 and 83 % of Earth’s natural lake and water storages, respectively) from 1992 to 2020. The goal was to address the human and climate change footprints on global water storage changes over decades, a research that has been challenged by the lack of frequency and time gaps exhibited by previous works.
For this work, the authors generated a reliable database by using computational data from 250.000 images taken periodically with different satellites, including CryoSat-2, ENVISAT, ICESat-2 and Sentinel.
The results of this study showed that 53 % of large natural lakes and 64 % of water reservoirs experienced significant water losses during the last three decades, particularly in arid regions. However, 24 % of natural lakes - most of them found in remote and underpopulated areas like Tibet - experienced significant volume increase due to changes in precipitation and runoff.
In total, the ensemble of studied natural lakes lost 600 km3 during the period 1992-2020, equivalent to the total water use in the US for the entire year of 2015. This negative balance led to the complete disappearance of some natural lakes like Lake Zonag in China or Toshka lakes in Egypt, although the largest inland water body, the Caspian Sea, accounted for 71% of the net decline in natural lake volume.
The authors of this work claim that more than half of water loss in lakes comes from direct human activities and increasing temperature and evapotranspiration due to climate change. Moreover, they indicate that there has been an intensified water cycle in a warming climate and a decline in the humid tropics and high-latitude regions over the past three decades.
According to the same study, 64 % large water reservoirs also experienced a significant decline of water storage. Nevertheless, and opposingly to natural lakes, the total large reservoirs showed a net global increase of almost 5 gigatons of water per year, owing to 180 recently filled reservoirs. The authors point to globe-distributed sedimentation as the main reason for storage decline in reservoirs, while wetting trends in certain humid regions like the Nile River and southeastern Canada offset the total balance.
Since one-quarter of the world’s population resides in a basin of a drying lake, the authors of this work warn of the necessity of improving water resources management to decrease the impact of climate change and sedimentation in the future. Moreover, water losses affect both the water and carbon cycles: water storage decline could reduce the amount of absorbed carbon dioxide by lakes and increase carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
The drying trends worldwide are more extensive than previously thought and therefore we urgently must find new ways to control unsustainable water utilization and to manage water resources to face a warmer future.
Original article
Water storage has decreased in 53 % of natural large lakes and 64 % of water reservoirs in the last 30 years according to a recent database published in Science.
A group of researchers of the University of Colorado Boulder has recently tracked volume changes of large natural lakes and water reservoirs (which account for 96 and 83 % of Earth’s natural lake and water storages, respectively) from 1992 to 2020. The goal was to address the human and climate change footprints on global water storage changes over decades, a research that has been challenged by the lack of frequency and time gaps exhibited by previous works.
For this work, the authors generated a reliable database by using computational data from 250.000 images taken periodically with different satellites, including CryoSat-2, ENVISAT, ICESat-2 and Sentinel.
The results of this study showed that 53 % of large natural lakes and 64 % of water reservoirs experienced significant water losses during the last three decades, particularly in arid regions. However, 24 % of natural lakes - most of them found in remote and underpopulated areas like Tibet - experienced significant volume increase due to changes in precipitation and runoff.
In total, the ensemble of studied natural lakes lost 600 km3 during the period 1992-2020, equivalent to the total water use in the US for the entire year of 2015. This negative balance led to the complete disappearance of some natural lakes like Lake Zonag in China or Toshka lakes in Egypt, although the largest inland water body, the Caspian Sea, accounted for 71% of the net decline in natural lake volume.
The authors of this work claim that more than half of water loss in lakes comes from direct human activities and increasing temperature and evapotranspiration due to climate change. Moreover, they indicate that there has been an intensified water cycle in a warming climate and a decline in the humid tropics and high-latitude regions over the past three decades.
According to the same study, 64 % large water reservoirs also experienced a significant decline of water storage. Nevertheless, and opposingly to natural lakes, the total large reservoirs showed a net global increase of almost 5 gigatons of water per year, owing to 180 recently filled reservoirs. The authors point to globe-distributed sedimentation as the main reason for storage decline in reservoirs, while wetting trends in certain humid regions like the Nile River and southeastern Canada offset the total balance.
Since one-quarter of the world’s population resides in a basin of a drying lake, the authors of this work warn of the necessity of improving water resources management to decrease the impact of climate change and sedimentation in the future. Moreover, water losses affect both the water and carbon cycles: water storage decline could reduce the amount of absorbed carbon dioxide by lakes and increase carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
The drying trends worldwide are more extensive than previously thought and therefore we urgently must find new ways to control unsustainable water utilization and to manage water resources to face a warmer future.
Original article