AI analysis shows pollution levels, extreme weather events and increasing temperatures devastate biodiversity in freshwater lakes.
AI analysis shows pollution levels, extreme weather events and increasing temperatures devastate biodiversity in freshwater lakes.
Scientists have run the first proof of concept of their DNA ‘time machine’ to shed light on a century of environmental change in a freshwater lake - including warming temperatures and pollution, leading to the potentially irreversible loss of biodiversity.
Their approach, which uses AI applied to DNA-based biodiversity, climate variables and pollution, could help regulators to protect the planet’s existing biodiversity levels, or even improve them.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham, in collaboration with Goethe University in Frankfurt, used sediment from the bottom of a lake in Denmark to reconstruct a 100-year-old library of biodiversity, chemical pollution, and climate change levels. This lake has a history of well-documented shifts in water quality, making it a perfect natural experiment for testing the biodiversity time machine.
Read more at University of Birmingham
Photo Credit: JoshuaWoroniecki via Pixabay
