Lakes hold key to how warming works

The lakes on Antarctica’s Signey Island have undergone “extreme ecological change,” according to a group of researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature.

They found that as the air on the Antartica peninsula got a little warmer, it set off a chain reaction that made the lake water warm up three times as fast.

Signey Island extends over an area seven kilometres by four kilometres, and much of it is covered with permanent ice. In summer, however, moss and grass grow and there are numerous freshwater pools and lakes.

Since 1980, the winter temperatures of 17 lakes on Signey Island have increased by up to 1.3 C. Signey’s permanent ice cover has shrunk by 45 per cent since 1951, and its lakes now have up to 60 fewer days of ice coverage than in 1980.

The island’s isolation allowed researchers to see what happens in a place that’s not affected by local pollution or heating associated with cities.

As in parts of the Canadian Arctic, some areas of Antarctica appear to be cooling, while others, like Signey Island are warming — more proof that regional variations can occur in global warming.