Ecology under lake ice

"As long as ecologists have studied temperate lakes, the winter has been their off-season. It’s difficult, even dangerous, to look under the ice, and they figured plants, animals and algae weren’t doing much in the dark and cold anyway.

But an international team of 62 scientists [among them Uppsala Limnologists Don, Gesa and William] looking at more than 100 lakes has concluded that life under the ice is vibrant, complex and surprisingly active. Their findings stand to complicate the understanding of freshwater systems just as climate change is warming lakes around the planet."

(an excerpt from the press release by Eric Sorensen, Washington State University)

Reference: Hampton et al. (2016), Ecology under lake ice. Ecology letters, doi: 10.1111/ele.12699