According to the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Lake Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 15th, a research team participated in by researchers from the institute used satellite observation data to quantitatively evaluate the changes in the surface water temperature of large lakes and reservoirs around the world in 2024 and their regional differences. It was found that the surface water temperature of global lakes in 2024 continued the warming trend of the past few decades, and the average summer surface water temperature of global lakes in 2024 reached 20°C.
The relevant research results were recently published in the international professional academic journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
Lake surface water temperature is an important sensitive indicator of climate change and one of the most critical variables in lake ecosystems, which profoundly affects the thermal structure of lakes and a series of biogeochemical processes. Data such as numerical simulation, in situ and satellite observations all show that global lakes have generally shown a warming trend since the 1980s.
It is worth noting that 2024 is the hottest year on Earth since 1850, with frequent heat waves. In this context, how lake water temperature responds is a hot issue in the field of lake science.
Researchers found that compared with 2001 to 2023, the water temperature of 64% of the world's lakes increased in 2024, of which 9% of the lakes reached a record high, and the surface water temperature of 36% of the lakes decreased. In the northern hemisphere, 97% of the lakes in Canada warmed by more than 2°C, and the warming of European lakes was also unusually significant, while the water temperature of lakes in northern Kazakhstan and other places dropped significantly; the water temperature of 63% of the lakes in the southern hemisphere dropped, but 94% of the lakes in the Amazon Basin warmed significantly.
