Poster Details
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH CHLOROPHYLL CONCENTRATIONS AND PHYTOPLANKTON BIOMASS UNDER LAKE ICE.
Ice-associated algae in the Artic can account for 20 to 30 percent of total annual productivity, but far less is known about the contribution of winter primary productivity to total productivity in temperate ecosystems. Sparkling Lake, a 63 ha seepage lake in Vilas County, Wisconsin often has higher concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the winter than the summer; which indicates that under ice algae may be a significant contributor to annual primary production. Interestingly, lakes in the surrounding area do not show this pattern. Here, we present data from twenty years of unanalyzed phytoplankton slides from Sparkling Lake (1997-2017, NTL-LTER dataset). Phytoplankton counts were conducted via microscopy and biomass was compared with chlorophyll-a concentrations, snow depth, and ice thickness. From this, we can infer chlA:carbon content of phytoplankton and assess the degree to which winter production is important on a seasonal basis. Understanding under ice ecology provides a baseline to assess future changes associated with lake-ice loss.
Emily Whitaker (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Wisconsin Madison, ewhitaker2@wisc.edu;
Thomas Shannon (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Wisconsin Madison, tshannon3@wisc.edu;
Hilary Dugan (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Wisconsin-Madison, hdugan@wisc.edu;