Small Lakes Keep Growing Across The Planet, And It's a Serious Problem

A new study has shown that small lakes on Earth have expanded considerably over the last four decades.

The size of global lake surfaces increased between 1984 and 2019. That's a bit more than the country ofDenmark.

Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gasses are produced from lakes because of the organisms that live at the bottom of the water snacking on dead plants and animals that drift down to the lake floor.

This lake's spread equates to an annual increase of carbon emissions in the region of 4.8 trillion grams of CO 2 - which is equal to the increase in CO 2 emissions by the whole of the UK in 2012

There have been major and rapid changes with lakes in recent decades that affect greenhouse gas accounts, as well as ecosystems and access to water resources.

Our knowledge of the extent and dynamics of lakes allow us to calculate their potential carbon emissions.

The researchers used satellite imagery and deep learning to assess the coverage of the lake. There were 3.4 million lakes recorded.

The team says that smaller lakes produce a high volume of emissions relative to their size.

The less expansive bodies of water are responsible for 45 percent of the increase in carbon dioxide output and 59 percent of the increase in methane emissions.

Tang says that small lakes emit adisproportionate amount of greenhouse gasses because they accumulate more organic matter. They are sometimes shallow. It's easier to get gasses to the surface and up into the atmosphere with this.

Small lakes are more sensitive to weather and climate changes than larger ones. Their size and water chemistry change a lot. It is more demanding to identify and map them. We have been able to do that.

Human activity is more than half of the increase in lake coverage over the study period. Warming of our planet causes melting glaciers and thawing permafrost.

As more melting and warming continues, the researchers are hoping that their data will prove useful for future climate models.

Tang says that the dataset can be used to make better estimates of water resources in freshwater lakes and to better assess the risk of flooding.

The research has appeared in a journal.