EDMONTON (CP) - A series of ponds on the Arctic tundra that have formed a crucial component of Ellesmere Island's ecosystem for 6,000 years have largely dried up and blown away in a single generation, says new research that suggests climate change may be affecting the North faster than anyone thought.
"It's very strong evidence that the Arctic is warming and that it's warming faster than we thought it was going to happen," said Marianne Douglas, a University of Alberta biologist who's been studying the ponds on the east coast of Ellesmere Island since 1983.
In a paper published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Douglas summarizes research she and her fellow researchers have conducted on a series of ponds on Cape Herschel.
The ponds varied in size from a few hundred to several thousand square metres and ranged from boggy marshland to one metre deep. Sediment samples suggest some of the larger ponds were up to 6,000 years old.
2007-07-02
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