RAPID response to an extreme low ice year on Lake Erie
Intellectual Merit: Winter presents a logistical obstacle to our
understanding of lake ecosystems. A recent collaboration of the
PIs with the Canadian- and U.S. Coast Guards and their
icebreaking programs has facilitated annual winter surveys of
Lake Erie since 2007. Conducted during times of expansive ice
cover, these surveys have documented high phytoplankton biomass,
often in discrete formations and dominated by a filamentous
diatom, Aulacoseira islandica. Whereas Lake Erie is
characterized by a high annual median ice cover [AMIC]
consistent with its relative shallow bathymetry, it also shows
extremes in maximum ice extent ranging from ~10% in low ice
years to > 99% in high ice years. While maximum ice cover on
Lake Eries has reached ~95% each winter from 2007-2010, the
winter of 2011-12 is shaping up much differently, with
unseasonably warm conditions and almost no ice cover. The PIs
will use a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant to investigate
the