Mapping global lake dynamics reveals the emerging roles of small lakes

Xuehui Pi, Qiuqi Luo, Lian Feng*, Yang Xu, Jing Tang, Xiuyu Liang, Enze Ma, Ran Cheng, Rasmus Fensholt, Martin Brandt, Xiaobin Cai, Luke Gibson, Junguo Liu, Chunmiao Zheng, Weifeng Li, Brett A. Bryan

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

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Abstract

Lakes are important natural resources and carbon gas emitters and are undergoing rapid changes worldwide in response to climate change and human activities. A detailed global characterization of lakes and their long-term dynamics does not exist, which is however crucial for evaluating the associated impacts on water availability and carbon emissions. Here, we map 3.4 million lakes on a global scale, including their explicit maximum extents and probability-weighted area changes over the past four decades. From the beginning period (1984–1999) to the end (2010–2019), the lake area increased across all six continents analyzed, with a net change of +46,278 km2, and 56% of the expansion was attributed to reservoirs. Interestingly, although small lakes (<1 km2) accounted for just 15% of the global lake area, they dominated the variability in total lake size in half of the global inland lake regions. The identified lake area increase over time led to higher lacustrine carbon emissions, mostly attributed to small lakes. Our findings illustrate the emerging roles of small lakes in regulating not only local inland water variability, but also the global trends of surface water extent and carbon emissions.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer5777
TidsskriftNature Communications
Vol/bind13
Antal sider12
ISSN2041-1723
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
L.F. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41971304), and J.L. is supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Hydrosphere and Watershed Water Security (No. XDA20060402). L.F. also acknowledges the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (No. JCYJ20190809155205559), the Stable Support Plan Program of the Shenzhen Natural Science Fund (No. 20200925155151006), and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (No. KCXFZ20201221173007020). R.F. is supported by the research grant DeReEco (34306) from Villum Fonden. J.T. is financially supported by Swedish FORMAS mobility grant (2016-01580) and acknowledges support from Lund University strategic research area Modelling the Regional and Global Earth System, MERGE.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

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