Camp pond had completely dried up
as of July 12, 2006
Credit: U of Alberta
In yet one more harbinger that global climate change has accelerated in the Arctic, shallow ponds that served the tundra as biological “hotspots” and bird habitat for millennia have suddenly shrank or disappeared under the withering summer sun.
Some ponds that existed as permanent features for more than 1,000 years on Cape Herschel of Ellesmere Island in far northeastern Canada abruptly evaporated in a season or two, according to a new study, Crossing the final ecological threshold in high Arctic ponds, published July 2 in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
“The final ecological threshold for these aquatic ecosystems has now been crossed: complete desiccation,” wrote Marianne Douglas, Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science and Director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute at the University of Alberta, and John Smol, Professor of Biology at Queen’s University, in the study’s abstract.
“It was quite shocking to see some of our largest study ponds dry up by early summer,” said Douglas.
They blamed the changes on warmer and drier conditions that shifted the ratio of evaporation to precipitation.
“These shallow ponds, which dot the Arctic landscape, are important indicators of environment change and are especially susceptible to the effects of climate change because of their low water volume,” the authors said in a story about the findings.