Global Warming Impacting Remote Habitats

Gabriela Cesaro, Reporter

Global Warming impacts the entire planet even remote habitats like Lake Baikal in Russia. Researchers have discovered that life under the ice there is vibrant, complex and very active. During the winter it is difficult for ecologists and dangerous to perform tasks such as looking under the ice. The ecologists also figured plants, animals and algae weren’t doing much in the dark and cold. Recently an international team of 62 scientists looking at more than 100 lakes, studying them have concluded that life under the ice is vibrant, complex and active.

“As ice seasons are getting shorter around the world, we are losing ice without a deep understanding of what we are losing,” said Stephanie Hampton, a Washington State University professor, according to Science Daily.

This shows how global warming has horrible effects on many marine organisms.

Even though winter’s lower temperatures and light levels force lake life into a slower mode, algae and zooplankton are still very abundant. If lake ice covers keep decreasing due to global warming temperatures results will be significant by understanding what may be far-reaching changes for lake ecosystems. There can be a lot of photosynthesis and a lot of productivity taking place in some lakes where the ice is clear and there’s not very much snow covering the lake. Lake ecologists discovered “a unique little microecosystem” under the ice, with filaments hanging down from the subsurface.

“Under sea ice, you see the growth of foods higher in beneficial fatty acids and contributions as high as 30 percent to overall annual productivity,” said Oregon Institute of Marine Biology’s Aaron Galloway. This is extremely important.

Many little things such as the growth of foods higher in beneficial fatty acids and much more benefit marine organisms extremely. The discovery of these benefits to growth in life are important. The more you know about the growth and life of these marine organisms and how its environment help them survive is very important to study. A number of things are changing, with climate change. This is important to note as well.