Highlight: California, Nevada Lakes Warming Rapidly

December 21, 2009
Highlight: California, Nevada Lakes Warming Rapidly

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California's Mono Lake was one of the six lakes included in a new study of warming in large lakes in California and Nevada. Image credit: Philipp Schneider

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new JPL study examines the impact recent variability in climate is having on the surface temperatures of large lakes in California and Nevada.

Recent climate variability is causing a number of large lakes in California and Nevada to warm rapidly, according to a new NASA study.

Thermal infrared imagery from NASA's on board NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites and from the European Space Agency's series of Along-Track Scanning Radiometers were used to quantify changes in the thermal behavior of six large lakes in California and Nevada (Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, Pyramid Lake, Walker Lake, Lake Almanor, and Clear Lake).

Highlight: California, Nevada Lakes Warming Rapidly
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Satellite-derived annual average lake surface temperatures of the July/August/September period for the six study sites. Trend lines were computed separately for each sensor series using weighted linear regression. Image credit: NASA/JPL

The results found that between 1992 and 2008, the average nighttime temperatures of these lakes during the months of July, August and September increased at an average rate of 0.11 Kelvin (0.2 degrees Fahrenheit) per year. Results were validated against direct, ground measurements made at Lake Tahoe, on the California/Nevada border. Such rapid warming is expected to have a significant impact on ecosystems.

More information: Satellite observations indicate rapid warming trend for lakes in California and Nevada, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L22402, doi:10.1029/2009GL040846

Provided by JPL/NASA (news : web)

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VeIanarris
Dec 22, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (6)
It's the UHI causing the warming!Don't scientists ever learn
Phelankell
Dec 22, 2009

Rank: 3 / 5 (6)
There's a reason why the southwest had to be irrigated to be a viable living space.
MikeyK_PaidAdvocate
Dec 22, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
It's the UHI causing the warming!Don't scientists ever learn

You're absolutely wrong, don't you understand that oceanic acidity is causing melting of the equatorial ice flows which will in turn inundate us all with acidic endangered species?

There I got all 4 of them in. I should get a bonus from Al for this post.
Shootist
Dec 22, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
"Highlight: California, Nevada Lakes Warming Rapidly"

Have the dairy farms returned to Greenland? The vineyards to Scotland?

No? It still isn't warm enough.
operator
Dec 28, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
shootist, warm enough for what? for whom?

you do understand ecological niches?
you understand evolution?
you understand adaptation to environmental stimulus?

you understand that ecosystems have become adapted to their present states by a slow process, yes, and that when the climate changes beyond their capacity to adapt or migrate then they die and if its wdiespread enough then the species goes extinct.
your lifestyle is based on a complex interplay of ecosystems and how that and the reources we extract from the earth sustain us and when this life supoorting system goes into dramtic change the we as a species also have to dramtically change.
Phelankell
Dec 28, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
you understand that ecosystems have become adapted to their present states by a slow process, yes, and that when the climate changes beyond their capacity to adapt or migrate then they die and if its wdiespread enough then the species goes extinct.


I'm guessing you're too young to remember all the outcry about the armadillo's habitat vanishing due to global cooling in the 70's.

Still see a bunch of them in the south, they seem rather unaffected.
operator
Dec 28, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
phelankell- and what has this got to do with species range migration or adaption in the face of a changing variable climate. the subject of this particular study is about measured change. although lake ecosystems by their nature have little scope for migration, the state of the lakes also has more relevance then just the ecosystems found there but also the source of water they provide.
Phelankell
Dec 28, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
and what has this got to do with species range migration or adaption in the face of a changing variable climate.


It would have everything to do with species range migration and variable climate. Do some cursory research. Your present state of alarm is old hat.
Rank 3.9 /5 (8 votes)
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lake, moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, surface temperatures, infrared imagery, lake almanor, pyramid lake, ecosystems
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