Climate change: Lakes freezing later leads to less algae in spring

A unique experiment in a Canadian lake has found that the timing of when ice forms can have a big impact on the organisms that live in it the following year



Life



1 December 2021

Lake Louise, Canada. Reflection of Mt. Burgess in the first gap in the ice after winter.

A gap in the ice in Lake Louise, Canada, as it starts to melt in spring

Julian Birchall/Getty Images

The timing of when ice forms on lakes in the winter can have big knock-on effects on life in the water the next spring and summer, according to a study that sheds light on how climate change will affect such ecosystems.

As the climate warms, lake ice is forming later and thawing earlier. But there hasn’t been much research done on lakes during the winter, partly because the ice-covered period has long been considered …