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Climate Progress: Over the past half century, warmer air temperatures have led to less ice on Arctic lakes and fewer of them freezing all the way to the bottom, according to Cristina Surdu of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues. Their findings are based on 20 years of satellite radar data collected in an area near Barrow, Alaska. In addition, the loss of ice and snow cover in the region exacerbates the warming by allowing more of the Sun’s heat to be absorbed by the land and water. The effects of climate change are already being seen in the region’s wildlife. The disappearing ice is forcing polar bears and walruses to crowd onto the available land and causing phytoplankton, which are important to the marine food chain, to bloom much earlier than before.
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Winter ice cover on Alaskan lakes is decreasing Free
4 February 2014