Our new peer-reviewed paper is out in the journal Inland Waters, the flagship journal for the International Society of Limnology. Lakes have historically been considered dormant during the winter when the top of many northern hemisphere lakes freeze over. We had a unique full year record of water chemistry and physics from Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire. We estimated lake metabolism (respiration and photosynthesis) from throughout the entire year. Despite the lake being close to freezing and darker in the winter, organisms under the ice continued to respire at rates higher than during the summer and photosynthesis continued throughout the winter. We provided evidence that year-round sampling is essential for understanding carbon cycling in lakes in our region.
This paper was a collaborative effort with researchers from Dartmouth College, Virginia Tech, Colby College, and Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and was led by Dr. Jennifer Brentrup, currently at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, myself, Dr. Cayelan Carey and Nicole Ward, MS both from Virginia Tech.