“Climate Change and Evaporating Lakes: The Impact on Biodiversity, Agriculture, and Flooding”

A new studypublished in Science, shows that the water level in 53 percent of the larger lakes worldwide has declined significantly in recent years. In some lakes, such as Mar Chiquita in Argentina or the Dead Sea on the border of Jordan and Israel, this is due to poor water management and consumption, such as water used for agriculture.

But climate change plays a role in many other places. “Due to higher temperatures, more water evaporates,” says climate specialist Bart Verheggen of RTL News. “This trend has a very direct link to climate change.”

A number of European lakes were also included in the study. For example, there are a number of large lakes in Norway where the water level is falling. In Switzerland, Lake Geneva has less water due to warming, as do Obersee in Germany and Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. The latter could even dry up completely by 2050.

It causes major problems for humans and animals. Farmers living in areas where lakes dry up lack water to grow crops and water their animals. Plant and animal species that lived in and around the lakes are also disappearing, causing a decrease in biodiversity. And people themselves are also short of drinking water.

More flooding

The evaporation of water not only causes problems for those living in the immediate vicinity. Large floods, such as those in the north of Italy, can also be caused by this. At least 14 people were killed in the floods and more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated. There is also extensive damage to homes.

You can see what the floods have caused in Italy in this video:

“All the water that evaporates also comes down again,” explains Verheggen. “There will be more water in the atmosphere.” Most of the water that evaporates due to warming is seawater. “But lakes also play a role in that.”

That does not necessarily mean that it rains more often. “But if it rains, it can come out of the air in larger containers. Italy is a good example of this.”

Lack of precipitation

But where it rains harder in one place, a lack of precipitation can also cause less water in a lake elsewhere. Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru, the highest lake in the world, was more than half a meter less deep in February of this year than five months earlier.

And the Great Salt Lake, near the American Salt Lake City, is also drying up rapidly, partly for this reason:

“Precipitation can work both ways,” says Verheggen. “There are places where less rain falls, and places where more rain falls. Lakes can be a bit fuller there.”

Dams

Yet only a quarter of the larger lakes showed an increase in the amount of water. Part of this is due to human actions, such as the construction of dams.

But climate change can also play a role here. “As more glaciers melt, lakes can fill up,” says Verheggen. “But that is temporary. When the glacier is completely gone, it will stop.”

In the photo below you can see that not only lakes, but also reservoirs are suffering from drought. Nearly two thirds of the larger water reservoirs worldwide saw a decrease in water.

Consider, for example, Spain, where an entire village resurfaced last year. However, the total amount of water in reservoirs worldwide has increased as many new reservoirs have been constructed in recent years.