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Widespread loss of lake ice around the Northern Hemisphere in a warming world

Nature Climate Change volume 9, pages 227–231 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ice provides a range of ecosystem services—including fish harvest1, cultural traditions2, transportation3, recreation4 and regulation of the hydrological cycle5—to more than half of the world’s 117 million lakes. One of the earliest observed impacts of climatic warming has been the loss of freshwater ice6, with corresponding climatic and ecological consequences7. However, while trends in ice cover phenology have been widely documented2,6,8,9, a comprehensive large-scale assessment of lake ice loss is absent. Here, using observations from 513 lakes around the Northern Hemisphere, we identify lakes vulnerable to ice-free winters. Our analyses reveal the importance of air temperature, lake depth, elevation and shoreline complexity in governing ice cover. We estimate that 14,800 lakes currently experience intermittent winter ice cover, increasing to 35,300 and 230,400 at 2 and 8 °C, respectively, and impacting up to 394 and 656 million people. Our study illustrates that an extensive loss of lake ice will occur within the next generation, stressing the importance of climate mitigation strategies to preserve ecosystem structure and function, as well as local winter cultural heritage.

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Fig. 1: Significant geomorphological and climatic characteristics classifying lakes that have annual and intermittent winter ice cover.
Fig. 2: Spatial distribution map of current and future Northern Hemisphere lakes that could experience intermittent winter ice cover with climate warming.
Fig. 3: Estimated numbers of lakes, countries and people affected by current and future projected lake ice loss.
Fig. 4: Climate projections for the timing of intermittent winter ice cover for shallow and deep lakes in Wisconsin, USA and Sweden.

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Data availability

The ice phenology record, as well as location, mean depth, surface area and elevation data, were sourced from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center Lake and River Ice Phenology database, which was updated through the 2017–2018 winter11. We acquired additional information (shoreline complexity and length, residence time, volume, mean discharge, slope within 100m of the lake shore and watershed area) for each of these lakes from the HydroLAKES database18. We acquired climate information for each lake (mean annual air temperature for 1970–2010) from the CRU30. Data that support the findings of this study are available at https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?packageid=edi.267.2.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to the numerous data providers who shared and updated their ice phenology records for the National Snow and Ice Data Center Lake and River Ice Phenology database. We thank A. Kuthakumar, T. Sadid and A. Shuvo for gathering lake morphology data from the literature. Funding was provided to S.S. by the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science Early Researcher Award, York University Research Chair programme and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. S.O. was partially supported by funding from the Department of the Interior Northeast Climate Science Center. Most data used in this manuscript are publicly available. The lake ice records were made available through the Long Term Ecological Research Network. In addition, the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research (NSF number DEB-1440297) programme provided data, funding and participation support for this project. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. This work was supported by the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network. We thank K. Jankowski for constructive comments that improved the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sapna Sharma, Kevin Blagrave, John J. Magnuson, Catherine M. O'Reilly.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Sapna Sharma & Kevin Blagrave

  2. Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    John J. Magnuson & Madeline R. Magee

  3. Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA

    Catherine M. O’Reilly

  4. United States Geological Survey, Middleton, WI, USA

    Samantha Oliver

  5. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Ryan D. Batt

  6. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, WI, USA

    Madeline R. Magee

  7. Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Dietmar Straile

  8. Department of Ecology and Genetics/Limnology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer

  9. Department of Biological Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Luke Winslow

  10. Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    R. Iestyn Woolway

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Contributions

S.S. and J.J.M. conceived the idea for the project. S.S. led the project. S.S., K.B., C.M.O., S.O., M.R.M., D.S., G.A.W., L.W. and R.I.W. collected the data. S.S., K.B. and S.O. conducted the data analysis. S.S., K.B., S.O. and C.M.O. drafted the figures and tables. S.S., K.B., C.M.O., S.O., R.D.B., M.R.M., D.S., G.A.W., L.W., R.I.W. and J.J.M. discussed the results, wrote sections of the text, provided critical feedback and commented on drafts of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sapna Sharma.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Journal peer review information: Nature Climate Change thanks Tiina Noges and Grant Gunn for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1–2

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Sharma, S., Blagrave, K., Magnuson, J.J. et al. Widespread loss of lake ice around the Northern Hemisphere in a warming world. Nat. Clim. Chang. 9, 227–231 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0393-5

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