Led by Dexter Howard and a team of researchers at Virginia Tech, we explored a 6 year dataset in year-round metabolism in a small Virginia Reservoir, especially under ice and throughout the entire year, not just the most commonly sampled summer season. Lake metabolism is a measurement of the production (via photosynthesis) and consumption (via respiration) of organic matter by lake organisms including bacteria, archaea, zooplankton, fish, and phytoplankton. We found that the reservoir was still active in the winter – counter to the idea that metabolism slows down in the cold. The paper is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences [link]. Below is a figure from the paper with Falling Creak Reservoir and the 6 years of ice data.
