@article {4940,
	title = {McMurdo Dry Valley lake edge {\textquoteleft}moats{\textquoteright}: The ecological intersection between terrestrial and aquatic polar desert habitat},
	journal = {Antarctic Science},
	year = {2024},
	month = {04/2024},
	pages = {1 - 17},
	abstract = {<p>Aquatic ecosystems - lakes, ponds and streams - are hotspots of biodiversity in the cold and arid environment of Continental Antarctica. Environmental change is expected to increasingly alter Antarctic aquatic ecosystems and modify the physical characteristics and interactions within the habitats that they support. Here, we describe physical and biological features of the peripheral \&lsquo;moat\&rsquo; of a closed-basin Antarctic lake. These moats mediate connectivity amongst streams, lake and soils. We highlight the cyclical moat transition from a frozen winter state to an active open-water summer system, through refreeze as winter returns. Summer melting begins at the lakebed, initially creating an ice-constrained lens of liquid water in November, which swiftly progresses upwards, creating open water in December. Conversely, freezing progresses slowly from the water surface downwards, with water at 1 m bottom depth remaining liquid until May. Moats support productive, diverse benthic communities that are taxonomically distinct from those under the adjacent permanent lake ice. We show how ion ratios suggest that summer exchange occurs amongst moats, streams, soils and sub-ice lake water, perhaps facilitated by within-moat density-driven convection. Moats occupy a small but dynamic area of lake habitat, are disproportionately affected by recent lake-level rises and may thus be particularly vulnerable to hydrological change.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM, connectivity, ecosystem, ice, microbial mats, transition},
	issn = {0954-1020},
	doi = {10.1017/S0954102024000087},
	url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/mcmurdo-dry-valley-lake-edge-moats-the-ecological-intersection-between-terrestrial-and-aquatic-polar-desert-habitats/31D94DD51E651603482A3AE6E8A52A57},
	author = {Stone, Michael S. and Devlin, Shawn and Ian Hawes and Kathleen A. Welch and Michael N. Gooseff and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach and Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss and Byron Adams and John E. Barrett and John C. Priscu and Peter T. Doran}
}
@article {5002,
	title = {Measuring and modelling functional moat area in perennially ice-covered Lake Fryxell, Antarctica},
	journal = {Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research},
	volume = {56},
	year = {2024},
	month = {10/2024},
	abstract = {<p>The perennially ice-covered lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs), Antarctica, are an important reservoir of liquid water in an arid and largely frozen environment. During the austral summer, the margins of these ice covers melt, forming a \&ldquo;moat\&rdquo; of liquid water and thin ice, allowing exchange between lake waters and the atmosphere to occur and serving as an interface between lake, soil, and stream ecosystems. The size of these moats varies from year to year. Here, we have established the first published record of moat area changes at MDVs\&rsquo; Lake Fryxell through time using manual traces of the moat as observed via satellite imagery. We have also tested a semi-automated approach for measuring moat area and found that it consistently underestimated the manual record, which we suspect may be due to the lower spatial resolution of images used in this versus the manual approach. Finally, we developed a predictive model based on readily available climate data, allowing moat area to be predicted beyond the limits of the satellite-based records. We found that functional moat area varies annually, potentially influencing ecosystem processes in the moats.</p>},
	keywords = {LTER-MCM, Lake Fryxell, lake ice, McMurdo Dry Valleys, moat, NDWI, predictive model},
	issn = {1523-0430},
	doi = {10.1080/15230430.2024.2406626},
	url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230430.2024.2406626},
	author = {Stone, Michael S. and Salvatore, Mark R. and Hilary A. Dugan and Myers, Madeline and Peter T. Doran}
}
