Global Environment Outlook 3 (GEO 3)

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FRESHWATER

2001). In 2001, Iceland’s National Planning Agency rejected plans for a hydroelectric power project that would have dammed two of the three main rivers flowing from Europe’s largest glacier and destroyed a vast wilderness. Since the 1970s, surface air temperatures appear to have increased on average 1.5°C per decade over continental Siberia and western portions of North America, both of which are major sources of freshwater into the Arctic basin. The opposite trend is occurring in Greenland and Canada’s eastern Arctic where there is a negative trend of –1°C per decade (AMAP 1997). The warming trend has resulted in thawing of the continuous permafrost in Alaska and northern Russia (Morison and others 2000, IPCC 2001). Arctic countries have partially responded to threats to their freshwater systems by establishing protected areas and designating important wetland areas under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. Nearly half the protected area in the Arctic is the Greenland ice cap and glaciers which store freshwater. Antarctic Although the Antarctic ice cap is the world’s largest body of freshwater, there are also seasonal streams and rivers, and numerous lakes and ponds in Antarctica. Other sources of freshwater are captured in the glaciers that occur in many coastal Antarctic regions. All these freshwater features are potentially threatened by pollution, including contaminates

introduced by Antarctic scientists and tourists. Freshwater lakes are found mainly in the coastal regions, on many of the sub-Antarctic Islands, and in the rare ice-free areas. Many are exposed to potential contamination from human activities. Observations at selected lakes, however, show that contamination resulting from research activities and station operations is generally near or below detection levels. In the Larsemann Hills of East Antarctica, trace metal concentrations appear to be higher in lakes situated in the vicinity of stations than those further away. The concentration levels still complied with drinking water standards (Gasparon and Burgess 2000). It is expected that the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty will minimize the impacts of human activities on these lakes. In 1970, observations revealed the existence of large lakes under the ice sheet in the central regions of the continent. Lake Vostok, which is about 220 km long, 70 km wide and holds about 2 000 km 3 of water, is the largest of the approximately 70 sub-glacial lakes known today (Dowdeswell and Siegert 1999). The global significance of sub-glacial lakes is that they have not been exposed to the atmosphere for the past 500 000 years and therefore maintain a unique archive of the past environment. There are also indications that Lake Vostok could contain viable micro-organisms (Karl and others 1999, Priscu and others 1999). A number of technologies for entering the lake without contaminating it are being considered (Russian Federation 2001).

References: Chapter 2, freshwater, the Polar Regions

Gasparon, M. and Burgess, J.S. (2000). Human impacts in Antarctica trace-element geochemistry of freshwater lakes in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica. Environmental Geology 39 (9), 963–76 IPCC (2001). Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, United Kingdom, and New York, United States, Cambridge University Press Karl, D.M., Bird, D.F., Bjorkman, K., Houlihan, T., Shackelford, R. and Tupas, L. (1999). Microorganisms in the accreted ice of Lake Vostok, Antarctica. Science 286 (5447), 2144–47 Morison, J., Aagaard, K. and Steele, M. (2000). Recent Environmental Changes in the Arctic: a review. Arctic (Arctic Journal of the Arctic Institute of North America) 53, 4, December 2000

PAME (1998). Regional Programme of Action for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities. Arctic Council Programme for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Priscu, J.C., Adams, E.E., Lyons, W.B., Voytek, M.A., Mogk, D.W., Brown, R.L., McKay, C.P., Takacs, C.D., Welch, K.A., Wolf, C.F., Kirshtein, J.D., and Avci, R. (1999). Geomicrobiology of subglacial ice above Lake Vostok, Antarctica. Science 286 (5447), 2141–44 Russian Federation (2001). Expert Conclusions for the Project ‘Justification and development of the ecologically clean technology for penetrating the subglacial Lake Vostok’ . Working Paper 29, 4th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, 9-20 July 2001, St. Petersburg

Arctic Bulletin (2001). WWF Arctic Programme No. 3.01, Oslo AMAP (1977). Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environment Report. Arctic Council Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo Bernes, C. (1996). The Nordic Arctic Environment – Unspoilt, Exploited, Polluted? Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen CAFF (2001). Arctic Flora and Fauna: Status and Conservation. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna. Helsinki, Edita Crane, K. and Galasso, J.L. (1999). Arctic Environmental Atlas. Office of Naval Research, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC Dowdeswell, J.A. and Siegert, M.J. (1999). The dimensions and topographic setting of Antarctic subglacial lakes and implications for large-scale water storage beneath continental sheets. Geological Society of America Bulletin 111, 2