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Climate change: Lakes of the future in mini format
The great-great-grandchildren of present-day Danes will inhabit a warmer and wetter climate than that of today. Twenty-four mini lakes in Jutland are to be used by scientists from the National Environmental Research Institute to determine what impact the warmer, wetter climate will have on lake ecology and on the possibilities of future Danes to bathe and fish in the lakes.
Danish climate researchers have calculated what the climate will be like in Denmark in 2071–2100. It will become warmer and wetter, and this will affect the aquatic ecosystems. What significance this might have for the lake ecosystems and for the Danes who want to bathe and fish in them is unclear at present, but an answer is in the pipeline.
“For us the aim is a better understanding of how the expected climate changes will affect our lakes. We would like to prepare a ”water forecast” for the lakes of the future,” says Erik Jeppesen, Research Professor at the National Environmental Research Institute.
The scientists have 24 large basins containing mini lakes, which are copies of existing lakes. The temperature of the water has been raised, though, so that it corresponds to the climate at the end of the present century. Over the next two-three years the scientists will collect data on animals and plants and on physico-chemical conditions in the lakes.
The lakes are part of a major cross-disciplinary scientific project, CONWOY, on the consequences of the future climate for aquatic ecosystems. Nine research institutions are participating in the project.
Further information: Erik Jeppesen, National Environmental Research Institute. Phone: +45 8920 1466. E-mail: ej@dmu.dk
Link to CONWOY: http://www.conwoy.ku.dk
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