Report: Warming climate threatens Prairie Pothole
RegionPublished in the February edition of the journal
BioScience, the research uses a climate model that predicts
average temperatures in the Prairie Pothole Region could rise
from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius between 2050 and 2100. By: Brad
Dokken, Grand Forks Herald A new report shows predictions for a
warming climate could be devastating to duck production in the
Prairie Pothole Region. Published in the February edition of the
journal BioScience, the research uses a climate model that
predicts average temperatures in the Prairie Pothole Region
could rise from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius between 2050 and 2100.
Under that scenario, wetlands crucial to duck production would
hold water for a shorter amount of time. “The impact to the
millions of wetlands that attract countless ducks to these
breeding grounds in spring makes it difficult to imagine how to
maintain today’s level of waterfowl populations in altered
climate conditions,” Glenn Guntenspergen, a U.S. Geological