Some of you might be interested in a project on under-ice lake ecology that is just beginning. https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/underice
If you have data on biota under ice, or general interest in this area, please check out the website for more information. We would like to invite collaboration as broadly as possible. Some information from the website is also pasted below. --- Traditionally summer has been considered the “growing season” in seasonally ice-covered lakes; however, it is increasingly evident that winter is a time of diverse biological activity and physical processes that affect ecosystem functioning throughout the year. Pioneering research on sea-ice systems has disclosed that under-ice communities can contribute more than half of the total annual primary productivity in some regions, sustaining both pelagic and benthic organisms. Far less is known of dynamics in seasonally ice-covered lakes, but observed similarities suggest analogous importance of ice-associated biota and processes for lakes. The emerging appreciation of the importance of under-ice production in marine systems and the rapidly changing ice phenologies of many lakes are stimulating increased interest in the under-ice ecology of lakes. We invite broad participation from the scientific community to engage in a collaborative synthesis of under-ice biological data from lakes. Many of us have data on some aspects of the under-ice biology of particular lakes; bringing our data together will help to tell a larger story about the relative importance of winter processes and how lakes differ from winter to summer. This synthesis project will help answer basic questions about winter limnology, catalyze new research directions for participants and forge new global collaborations. Participation may be both virtual and face-to-face in 2014 and 2015, with face-to-face meetings to take place at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, CA. A portion of participant travel and lodging costs may be covered with help from the National Science Foundation (NSF DEB #1431428). Information about getting involved: https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/underice
