BY AMANDA HARRISON
The trend of warm weather this past year has affected everything from crops to forest fires.
Now scientists worry about the impacts the warm weather's having on the Great Lakes.
Lake Superior is of particular concern for some scientists. It reached record temperatures in certain areas this past August. And has been experiencing an upward trend in overall temperatures.
George Leshkevich is a physical scientist at the Noaa Great Lakes Laboratory. He said a lack of ice coverage over Lake Superior is contributing to the increase of its temperature.
That lack of ice coverage, he said, will have a major impact on fisheries.
"Some species need a stable ice cover over spawning beds so winter storms don't affect the spawning beds if there's an ice cover and some species my understanding they need the cold temperatures to spawn."
Lack of ice coverage, Leshkevich said, is also contributing to a decrease in water levels throughout the Great Lakes.