Fall 2021 • Issue 11

Winter Research

Published November 2021

This issue on Winter Research sheds light on the most neglected season of the limnological calendar, emphasizing the urgent need to understand ecosystem dynamics beneath the shrinking ice cover. It highlights critical collaborative efforts like the Great Lakes Winter Network and unique partnerships with the U.S. Coast Guard to access remote frozen waters where standard monitoring pauses. Scientific contributions explore how winter conditions fundamentally shape fish behavior, metabolic rates, and carbon cycling, while longer-term studies reveal connections between winter runoff and subsequent summer productivity. Drawing parallels with international research in Russia, the content argues that coordinated monitoring is essential now more than ever, before warming climates erase this unique window of ecological insight.

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Features

Embedding with the "Guardians of the Great Lakes"

Partnerships with the U.S. Coast Guard enable critical winter sampling in Lake Erie, providing unique data on a low-ice future when agency monitoring pauses.

A Season Overlooked

With ice cover declining rapidly, the scientific community must urgently coordinate winter research to understand climate impacts before the data is lost forever.

Winter wakes

Winter ecology demands resilience and flexibility, as seen in the comeback of cisco populations in Lake Ontario and the challenges of fieldwork in freezing conditions.

Investigating life under the ice in Lake Onego, Russia

A Russian-Swiss interdisciplinary project reveals how under-ice convections and ice quality drive ecosystem development and carbon emissions in Lake Onego.

The Great Lakes Winter Network

A new collaborative network aims to fill the massive data gap in winter research across the Great Lakes through coordinated sampling and shared infrastructure.

The state of winter limnology in the Great Lakes

Winter is the least studied season in the Great Lakes, yet its changing ice cover dictates critical ecosystem processes that remain poorly understood.

Departments

Member Spotlight

Dominique Rumball

Dominique Rumball investigates groundwater quantity and quality, focusing on nutrient transport and climate change impacts in the Great Lakes basin.

Member Spotlight

Jana Levison

Jana Levison evaluates the effectiveness of restoration projects for fish species at risk across Southwestern Ontario as part of the FishCAST program.

Research Brief

Filling data gaps

Continuous winter monitoring in Lake Erie reveals shifting metabolic states and CO2 fluxes, offering a glimpse into the lake's future low-ice conditions.

Research Brief

Winter shapes fish behavior and species interactions

Winter conditions drive divergent activity patterns in fish species, promoting coexistence in ways that shorter winters due to climate change may threaten.

Research Brief

Earlier winter-spring runoff leads to lower summer primary production in temperate lakes

Earlier winter runoff correlates with lower summer phytoplankton biomass in temperate lakes, suggesting winter conditions set the stage for summer productivity.

Research Brief

Winter, summer bathymetric distribution and diet of benthic fishes

Deep-water fish like round gobies and alewives migrate significantly between seasons, with winter diets and behaviors differing sharply from summer patterns.