Ecology under lake ice

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.