Your local fishing hole is getting browner, changing which fish species thrive and which ones struggle

The lakes, streams and ponds you’ve visited for years are likely looking more brown than they used to. And people who are fishing those waters are likely catching different species and sizes of fish than in the past. Our research has identified a link between those two developments, which means that trout, bass, perch and whitefish may become less common in unstocked lakes. But pike and walleye anglers may be in for a trophy-sized surprise. In the past several decades, across much of northeastern North America and northern Europe, many freshwater ecosystems are getting darker, and they are changing in other ways as a result. What is freshwater browning? The specific phenomenon of darkening water, called “freshwater browning,” is driven by a few factors. Among the reasons are climate change, as higher temperatures and increased runoff are combining to increase the amount and types of carbon compounds that move from soil and land into bodies of water. Similarly, as people have taken steps to reduce acidic emissions coming from smokestacks and other sources, less acid has fallen as precipitation, changing the chemistry of soils. Those chemical changes are also increasing the flow of carbon to bodies of water. Higher levels…

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