Climate Change Alters Arctic Lake

Climate change has altered the makeup of North America's northernmost lake, a study suggests.

The algea in Canada's Ward Hunt Lake have become more active over the last two centuries, a sediment core analysis conducted by scientists at Universite Laval reveals. Chlorophyll "a," a pigment found in every species in the lake, has increased by a factor of 500—an unprecedented rise in the lake’s last 8,000 years.

"Our data indicate that current conditions make the lake a more favorable location for algae growth than it was in the past," explained researcher Dermot Antoniades of Universite Laval. "We cannot claim with certainty that these changes were brought on by human activity, but natural variations observed over the last millennia were never so abrupt and extensive."

The ice-covered lake—located on an island surrounded by ice—is an extreme environment for organisms. The researchers even suggest that the lake was once permanently frozen.

—LiveScience Staff

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