@article {5022, title = {One-hundred fundamental, open questions to integrate methodological approaches in lake ice research}, journal = {Water Resources Research}, volume = {61}, year = {2025}, month = {05/2025}, pages = {e2024WR039042}, abstract = {

The rate of technological innovation within aquatic sciences outpaces the collective ability of individual scientists within the field to make appropriate use of those technologies. The process of in situ lake sampling remains the primary choice to comprehensively understand an aquatic ecosystem at local scales; however, the impact of climate change on lakes necessitates the rapid advancement of understanding and the incorporation of lakes on both landscape and global scales. Three fields driving innovation within winter limnology that we address here are autonomous real-time in situ monitoring, remote sensing, and modeling. The recent progress in low-power in situ sensing and data telemetry allows continuous tracing of under-ice processes in selected lakes as well as the development of global lake observational networks. Remote sensing offers consistent monitoring of numerous systems, allowing limnologists to ask certain questions across large scales. Models are advancing and historically come in different types (process-based or statistical data-driven), with the recent technological advancements and integration of machine learning and hybrid process-based/statistical models. Lake ice modeling enhances our understanding of lake dynamics and allows for projections under future climate warming scenarios. To encourage the merging of technological innovation within limnological research of the less-studied winter period, we have accumulated both essential details on the history and uses of contemporary sampling, remote sensing, and modeling techniques. We crafted 100 questions in the field of winter limnology that aim to facilitate the cross-pollination of intensive and extensive modes of study to broaden knowledge of the winter period.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, cryosphere, lake ice, limnology, modeling, remote sensing}, issn = {0043-1397}, doi = {10.1029/2024WR039042}, url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024WR039042}, author = {Culpepper, Joshua and Sharma, Sapna and Gunn, Grant and Magee, Madeline R. and Meyer, Michael F. and Anderson, Eric J. and Arp, Chris and Cooley, Sarah W. and Dolan, Wayana and Hilary A. Dugan and Duguay, Claude R. and Jones, Benjamin M. and Kirillin, Georgiy and Ladwig, Robert and Lepp{\"a}ranta, Matti and Long, Di and Magnuson, John J. and Pavelsky, Tamlin and Piccolroaz, Sebastiano and Robertson, Dale M. and Steele, Bethel G. and Tom, Manu and Weyhenmeyer, Gesa A. and Woolway, R. Iestyn and Xenopoulos, Marguerite A. and Yang, Xiao} } @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 = {

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 \“moat\” 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\’ 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.

}, 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} } @article {4447, title = {Modeling present and future ice covers in two Antarctic lakes}, journal = {Journal of Glaciology}, volume = {66}, year = {2020}, month = {02/2020}, abstract = {

Antarctic lakes with perennial ice covers provide the opportunity to investigate in-lake processes without direct atmospheric interaction, and to study their ice-cover sensitivity to climate condi- tions. In this study, a numerical model \– driven by radiative, atmospheric and turbulent heat fluxes from the water body beneath the ice cover \– was implemented to investigate the impact of climate change on the ice covers from two Antarctic lakes: west lobe of Lake Bonney (WLB) and Crooked Lake. Model results agreed well with measured ice thicknesses of both lakes (WLB \– RMSE= 0.11 m over 16 years of data; Crooked Lake \– RMSE= 0.07 m over 1 year of data), and had acceptable results with measured ablation data at WLB (RMSE= 0.28 m over 6 years). The differences between measured and modeled ablation occurred because the model does not consider interannual variability of the ice optical properties and seasonal changes of the lake\’s thermal structure. Results indicate that projected summer air temperatures will increase the ice-cover annual melting in WLB by 2050, but that the ice cover will remain peren- nial through the end of this century. Contrarily, at Crooked Lake the ice cover becomes ephem- eral most likely due to the increase in air temperatures.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, climate change, energy balance, ice and climate, ice-sheet modeling, lake ice}, doi = {10.1017/jog.2019.78}, url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-glaciology/article/modeling-present-and-future-ice-covers-in-two-antarctic-lakes/9306439ADD5492BC05F3BAF0E076B1C3}, author = {Echeverr{\'\i}a, Sebasti{\'a}n and Hausner, Mark B. and Bambach, Nicol{\'a}s and Vicu{\~n}a, Sebasti{\'a}n and Su{\'a}rez, Francisco} } @phdthesis {4097, title = {Geophysics, Water Balance, and History of Thick Perennial Ice Covers on Antarctic Lakes}, volume = {Ph.D.}, year = {2014}, school = {University of Illinois}, type = {doctoral}, address = {Chicago, IL}, abstract = {

Antarctic lakes are studied as sentinels of future change, for paleolimnological records contained in the sediments, and as habitats for the simple food webs that can exist in inhospitable environments. Understanding how lakes are formed and are sustained in response to landscape and climate conditions is critical in addressing the aforementioned research themes. This thesis is governed by the overarching hypothesis that an understanding of hydrologic and sediment transport processes associated with lake ice formation and preservation can be used to reveal past climatic changes, and further our awareness of current changes in climate and water balance in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. The first chapter focuses on water loss from closed basin lakes in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, and presents updated estimates of sublimation and ablation rates from long-term empirical measurements. The second and third chapters address the formation of Lake Vida, Antarctica. The former investigates the accretion of a 27 m ice cover, and considers the origin of thick sediment layers in the ice cover, and the latter uses two geophysical methods to quantify the extent and volume of the brine network in the subsurface beneath the lake. The results presented herein advance the study of hydrogeology in continuous permafrost, provide additional evidence for fluctuating climate states in the McMurdo Dry Valleys throughout the mid to late Holocene, and provide a case study for the preservation of water in a cold, desert environment analogous to neighboring planets.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, Antarctica, brine, lake ice, McMurdo Dry Valleys, polar lakes, sublimation}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10027/19407}, author = {Hilary A. Dugan}, editor = {Peter T. Doran} }