Great Lakes show massive ice loss, study says
Source: CBC News
Most of the water in the Great Lakes hasn't frozen this year — largely because of a warmer-than-usual winter — and a new study shows the lakes have been losing ice cover for 40 years.
Lake Superior is the coldest of the Great Lakes. Yet only a thin layer of ice surrounds a cargo ship in the Thunder Bay, Ont., harbour. Past the break wall, there's no ice at all.
... According to a new study published in the Journal of Climate, the Great Lakes have lost more than two-thirds of their ice cover over the last four decades. Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair lost the least (50 per cent), while Lake Ontario has lost the most ice (88 per cent). That's more than even the study's lead author, ice climatologist Jia Wang, expected.
... The study noted that ice cover varies from year to year, depending on whether cold or warm systems are passing through. But it attributes the overall ice decrease to global warming — a factor that can affect fish and marine plants.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/03/13/tby-lake-superior-ice.html
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