117 milioni di laghi
Un satellite del National Geographic conta (circa) 117 milioni di laghi sul nostro pianeta. Un censimento interessante, se pensiamo che tanti di noi accettano di buon grado di pescare fianco a fianco con innumerevoli sconosciuti, negli stessi posti predisposti alla pronta pesca. Perdonate la divagazione di stampo prettamente alieutico – sono di parte, lo riconosco – ma il mondo che ci circonda offre molto di più. Sta a noi cercare l’altrove.
Vanni Marchioni
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Using satellite photos and computerized mapping technologies, an international research team counted all of the lakes on Earth. They found about 117 million lakes, covering almost four percent of the world’s land surface, not counting the glaciers on Greenland and Antarctica, according to a new study.
It is the first time the world’s lakes have been counted using a reliable method, the study claims.
The research team from Sweden, Estonia, France and United States undertook the study to help them understand more about the role of lakes in the global carbon cycle and other natural processes.
“If we are to be able to make realistic estimates of the collected effects of the different processes in lakes, for example their contribution to global warming, we first need a good map. We now have that. And it differs significantly from the assumptions previously made regarding the number and size distribution of lakes,” said study leader Lars Tranvik, professor of limnology at Uppsala University in Sweden, in an article published on the American Geophysical Union website.
When microorganisms break down organic substances in nature, carbon dioxide and methane are released into the atmosphere. Research teams such as Tranvik’s are finding that lakes contribute significantly to these and other natural processes.
The actual counting was done by Charles Verpoorter, now a researcher at the University of Lille Nord in France and lead author of an article about the lake inventory, which has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. He and another co-author, David Seekell of the University of Virginia, are also members of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON).