More than half of the world’s lakes and water reservoirs have lost a significant amount of water over the past three decades, a new study reveals, while stressing that this is partly due to climate change and partly to excessive water use.
About 1/4 of the world’s population lives in basin of a drying up lake, according to the study by an international team of scientists, published Thursday in the journal Science.
And although lakes cover only 3% of it surface of the planethost approximately 90% of fresh water – making them an essential source of drinking water, irrigation and electricity while also providing vital habitats for animals and plants.
Experts explain that it is normal for water levels to Lakes they fluctuate depending on the climatic conditions – such as rainfall and snowfall.
However, are affected increasingly by human actions.
In the whole world, the most important lakes see steep falls.
The level of Lake Mead at Colorado in the US it has declined dramatically due to drought and decades of overuse.
And the largest lake in the world, the Caspian Seabetween Asia and Europe, has begun to decline dramatically due to climate change and human waste.
Scholars have extensively documented the shrinkage of the lakes but the extent of the changes and the reasons behind them have not been extensively explored, said the study leader Fangfang Yao and Visiting Scholar at the University of Boulder Colorado.
The experts used satellite measurements of 2,000 lakes and water reservoirs, which together represent 95% of the total volume of lake water worldwide.
They analyzed 250,000 satellite images from 1992 to 2020, as well as climate models, which managed to recreate the history of the lakes.
The results were shocking, the authors said.
They concluded that 53% of lakes and water reservoirs had lost a significant amount of water, with a net drop of 22 billion metric tons of water each year.
As they point out in their study, 50% of this water loss in natural lakes is due to human activities and climate change.
These losses were not limited to some isolated regions of the planet but appeared everywhere – from the tropics to the frozen Arctic.
Yao emphasizes that this global trend is more extensive than experts thought until now.
Scientists believe that the arid regions of the planet will become even more arid due to climate change, and the wet ones even wetter.
The research, however, also shows significant water loss even in areas with high humidity.
Source: CNN Greece
