• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Yellowstone Lake’s Unwavering Ice Has Resisted Almost 100 Years Of Climate Change

April 18, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Yellowstone Lake, the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park, has been impressively resilient in the face of climate change. In the last century, the length of time that the lake has been covered by ice each year has not changed, despite increasingly warm temperatures in the region.

In the midst of a climate crisis, most lakes around the world are experiencing shorter periods of ice cover. “Lakes are sentinels of environmental change,” the researchers write in their new study. As things get hotter, they tend to freeze later and melt earlier – but not Yellowstone Lake.

Advertisement

“Contrary to expectation, the ice phenology of Yellowstone Lake has been uniquely resistant to climate change,” they add. “Indeed, despite warming temperatures in the region, no change in the timing nor duration of ice cover has occurred.”

Yellowstone Lake, with a surface area of 341 square kilometers (132 square miles) and sitting 2,357 meters (7,733 feet) above sea level, is North America’s largest high-elevation lake. Such lakes were thought to be particularly vulnerable to climate change, but few long-term records of their phenology – the timing and duration of ice cover during winter – exist.

To rectify this, the team behind the new study quantified Yellowstone Lake’s ice phenology over 95 years (1927-2022), comparing it to seven similar lakes in northern Europe.

Typically, the lake is ice-covered from late December through May – and this has stayed surprisingly consistent over almost a century, even with the 1°C (1.8°F) increase in temperature the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has seen since 1950. Other lakes in Europe, meanwhile, have not seen the same consistency.

Advertisement

“The unchanging ice phenology of Yellowstone Lake stands in stark contrast to similar lakes in the Northern Hemisphere,” the researchers write.

Which begs the question: Why is Yellowstone Lake seemingly so invulnerable to climate change?

The team believe that the lake’s secret weapon may be increased snowfall, which has likely acted as a shield against spikes in temperature. “Shifts in local precipitation, especially increases in fall and spring snow, appear to be buffering the lake’s ice phenology against warming temperatures,” they explain.

It’s simple thermodynamics: a thicker layer of ice takes more energy to melt, so a quicker build-up of snow in fall, followed by an extra sprinkling in spring creates a thick covering that can withstand increasing air temperatures – at least for now.

Advertisement

Climate projections suggest that there will be continued warming and a shift from snow to rain in both fall and spring in the high Rocky Mountains, which could be detrimental to Yellowstone Lake’s enduring ice cover. The researchers think a “tipping point” may be on the horizon, which could bring about abrupt changes in the lake’s ice phenology.

The tide may be turning for Yellowstone, and it could really shake things up for the lake’s whole ecosystem, affecting its hardy inhabitants and impacting everything from nutrient cycling and lake productivity, to fisheries and recreation.

The study is published in Environmental Research Letters.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. U.S. banking lobby groups oppose proposed tax reporting law
  2. Video Shows Albert Einstein Explaining His Most Famous Equation
  3. Secret Service Agent At JFK Assassination Casts Doubt On Single Bullet Theory
  4. If Brain Transplants Like The One In Poor Things Were Possible, This Is How They Might Work

Source Link: Yellowstone Lake’s Unwavering Ice Has Resisted Almost 100 Years Of Climate Change

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Project Hail Mary Trailer First Look: What Would Happen If The Sun Got Darker?
  • Newly Discovered Cell Structure Might Hold Key To Understanding Devastating Genetic Disorders
  • What Is Kakeya’s Needle Problem, And Why Do We Want To Solve It?
  • “I Wasn’t Prepared For The Sheer Number Of Them”: Cave Of Mummified Never-Before-Seen Eyeless Invertebrates Amazes Scientists
  • Asteroid Day At 10: How The World Is More Prepared Than Ever To Face Celestial Threats
  • What Happened When A New Zealand Man Fell Butt-First Onto A Powerful Air Hose
  • Ancient DNA Confirms Women’s Unexpected Status In One Of The Oldest Known Neolithic Settlements
  • Earth’s Weather Satellites Catch Cloud Changes… On Venus
  • Scientists Find Common Factors In People Who Have “Out-Of-Body” Experiences
  • Shocking Photos Reveal Extent Of Overfishing’s Impact On “Shrinking” Cod
  • Direct Fusion Drive Could Take Us To Sedna During Its Closest Approach In 11,000 Years
  • Earth’s Energy Imbalance Is More Than Double What It Should Be – And We Don’t Know Why
  • We May Have Misjudged A Fundamental Fact About The Cambrian Explosion
  • The Shoebill Is A Bird So Bizarre That Some People Don’t Even Believe It’s Real
  • Colossal’s “Dire Wolves” Are Now 6 Months Old – And They’ve Doubled In Size
  • How To Fake A Fossil: Find Out More In Issue 36 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
  • Is It True Earth Used To Take 420 Days To Orbit The Sun?
  • One Of The Ocean’s “Most Valuable Habitats” Grows The Only Flowers Known To Bloom In Seawater
  • World’s Largest Digital Camera Snaps 2,104 New Asteroids In 10 Hours, Mice With 2 Dads Father Their Own Offspring, And Much More This Week
  • Simplest Explanation For “Anomalous” Signals Coming From Underneath Antarctica Ruled Out
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version