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Contact: David Swanson, 907-455-0665
A recent NPS study shows that Arctic national parks are losing lakes rapidly where ice-rich permafrost dominates the landscape even though precipitation has remained largely the same over time. In Bering Land Bridge National Preserve alone, 3 square miles of lakes drained in 2018, a single-year loss that previously characterized a decade’s worth of draining. The study found that major episodes of lake draining in Arctic parks also occurred in 2005-2007 following very warm years in 2003 and 2004. The extreme loss of lakes is continuing during the 2019 record-warm summer, as scientists have already witnessed numerous drained lakes in the northern portion of Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. Lakes are an important part of the Arctic; their disappearance will have significant consequences for the animals and people that depend on them.The full study is avaliable at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230430.2019.1629222
Disappearing Lakes
Showing results 1-3 of 3
- Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
Loons without lakes
- Locations: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
Over a decade of loon population survey data combined with satellite imagery of lakes in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve dating back to the mid-1980s indicate remarkable changes in the nesting lakes of loons are underway. Lake drying in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and consequences for loons. How will loons cope with the widespread draining of lakes?
- Locations: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument
Read the abstract and get the link to an article published in a peer-reviewed journal: Swanson, D. K. 2019. Thermokarst and precipitation drive changes in the area of lakes and ponds in the national parks of northwestern Alaska, 1984-2018. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 51(1): 265-279.
- Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
Discovery of Paleoclimate Proxies in Maar Lakes of Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
- Locations: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
Read the abstract and get the link to an article on clues lake sediments can give us about the paleoclimate of the Bering Land Bridge: Wang, K. J., J. A. O’Donnell, W. M. Longo, L. Amaral-Zettler, L. Gaoyuan, Y. Yao, and Y. Huang. 2019. Group I alkenones and Isochrysidales in the World’s large maar lake complexes and their potential paleoclimatic applications. Organic Geochemistry.
Last updated: August 13, 2019