Will groundwater change with global warming?
Ann Arbor, MI — Water seeping through limestone makes a major contribution to streams and rivers feeding into the Great Lakes of North America. Scientists around the world are watching the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but levels are much higher in the soil, where it is produced by microbial respiration. Carbon dioxide dissolves in groundwater, but blows into the atmosphere when the groundwater emerges into streams. What buffering will vast quantities of slowly moving groundwater give us against rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere? How might changes in groundwater acidity and temperature affect our fish? Nobody knows right now, which is why we need the baseline measurements in this research paper.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Groundwater temperature and degassing in the Mad River subwatershed of Lake Huron," are reported by Howard Swatland in Volume 38, No. 1, of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by Elsevier, 2012.
Contacts
For more information about the study, contact Howard Swatland, swatland@uoguelph.ca.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; jglr@ec.gc.ca; (306) 975-5310.
Since 1967, IAGLR has served as the focal point for compiling and disseminating multidisciplinary knowledge on North America's Laurentian Great Lakes and other large lakes of the world and their watersheds. In part, IAGLR communicates this knowledge through publication of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, available to members in print and electronic form. A searchable archive of the journal is available online and includes the abstracts of articles from the journal's inception in 1975 through the most recent issue. In addition, complete articles are available to members who have signed up for an electronic subscription.