The Change Mariner

Global warming (?) is choking the life out of Lake Tanganyika

Independent.UK

Studies by two independent teams of scientists have found local temperature rises and climate change have dramatically altered the delicate nutrient balance of the lake, Africa's second largest body of fresh water.
... Piet Verburg, of the University of Waterloo, in Canada, and Catherine O'Reilly of the University of Arizona, in Tucson, who led the studies, found warmer temperatures and less windy weather in the region is starving the lake's life of essential salts that contain nitrogen and sulphur.

Dr O'Reilly's study, in the journal Nature, suggests the lake's productivity, measured by the amount of photosynthesis its plant life has done, has diminished by 20 per cent, which could easily account for the 30 per decrease in fish yields.

The scientists say climate change rather than overfishing is largely responsible for the collapse in Tanganyika's fish stocks and the position is likely to get much worse.

"The human implications of such subtle, but progressive, environmental changes are potentially dire in this densely populated region of the world, where large lakes are essential natural resources for regional economies," the scientists say. Dirk Verschuren, a freshwater biologist at Ghent University in Belgium, said both studies could explain why sardine fishing has declined by between 30 and 50 per cent since the late 1970s.