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GLOBAL WARMING BRINGS EARLIER SPRING THAW TO GREAT LAKES
New Scientist
August 20, 2005

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7876

The Great Lakes of the US, the planet's largest concentration of fresh
water, is thawing earlier each spring, according to an analysis of ice
break-ups dating back to 1846.

Barbara Benson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues
studied the timing of ice break-up on 61 lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Michigan, New York and Ontario between 1975 and 2004, during which time the
average global air temperature rose by 0.4 °C. The team gathered the dates
from government databases, lake associations, newspapers and local
residents.

On 56 of the lakes the spring thaw showed an earlier trend, occurring two
days sooner each decade on average. Though the thaw has been happening ever
earlier since 1846, the calculations show the rate of change is now more
than three times as fast as it was before 1975. Benson says the date of ice
break-up has "marched northward 100 kilometres per decade" in that time.

"What's happening around us is big enough and so far out of our control that
it is affecting the whole Great Lakes region," says team member John
Magnuson.

The team presented its findings at the Ecological Society of America's
meeting in Montreal, Canada, last week.

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Published by David Sunfellow
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