NEWCOMB, N.Y.— Wolf Lake in the Adirondack High Peaks region is considered a "heritage lake," one of the most pristine freshwater bodies in the northeastern United States.
It remains as it was when European settlers arrived in North America. As part of a private preserve bordering the state-owned 300-square-mile High Peaks Wilderness Area, it has escaped pollution and the ravages of invasive plants and animals. It's one of a dwindling number of lakes with heritage brook trout and calcium-rich soils buffering its water from fish-killing acid rain.
But there's no shelter from climate change, and Wolf Lake's pristine days may be numbered. A new study shows the length of time the lake is covered with ice each winter has declined by three weeks since 1975, indicating a change that may alter the lake's ecology and harm cold-water species such as trout.
Beier said researchers have found warming to be a cause of algae blooms in several lakes in Ontario, Canada, and similar algae increases have been noted in some Adirondack lakes.
The study was conducted at the Adirondack Ecological Center in Newcomb, part of the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The center is in the 23-square-mile Huntington Wildlife Forest.
The loss of ice time was the largest decrease seen in any published data from the Adirondacks and in the top 10 percent of any reported in the U.S. and Canada, Beier said.
"We're finding that the lakes aren't opening much earlier in the spring; the change is mostly in the fall, with freeze-upcoming later," Beier said. While warmer temperatures were also noted in spring, the effect was lessened by snow cover that insulates the ice.
With very little snow and unusually mild temperatures over the past winter, lakes were iceless by late March or early April, about a week earlier than the 10-year average, Beier said.
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