News

Oxygen levels in the world’s temperate freshwater lakes are declining rapidly — faster than in the oceans — a trend driven largely by climate change that threatens freshwater biodiversity and drinking water quality.

As more dissolved organic matter enters lakes across the northeast United States, darkening the lakes in a phenomena called “browning,” new research shows that these waters may be growing less productive and able to sustain less life.

With a prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant, researcher Kevin Rose will examine large-scale patterns in concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and dissolved oxygen .

Increased solar radiation penetrating through the damaged ozone layer is interacting with the changing climate, and the consequences are rippling through the Earth’s natural systems, effecting everything from weather to the health and abundance of sea mammals like seals and penguins.

Steve Jane, a graduate student in biological sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. — Steve Jane, a graduate student in biological sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Increasing organic runoff as a result of climate change may be reducing the penetration of pathogen-killing ultraviolet (UV) sunlight in inland lakes, rivers, and coastal waters, according to a new study in the journal Scientific Reports. 

As global temperatures rise, how will lake ecosystems respond? As they warm, will lakes—which make up only 3 percent of the landscape, but bury more carbon than the world’s oceans combined—release more of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane? 

Understanding the role of lakes and reservoirs in the global carbon cycle is central to the work of Kevin Rose, who recently joined the faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).