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Ice-Covered Lakes Environment

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Freezing of Lakes and the Evolution of Their Ice Cover

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Abstract

Ice cover on a lake introduces challenges for nature and human life. Under an ice cover, it is dark and quiet, photosynthesis is limited by the light conditions, and respiration is limited by the decreasing dissolved oxygen storage. Aquatic life must minimize energy consumption to survive over the winter. In many eutrophic lakes artificial aeration or vertical circulation driving systems are used for the dissolved oxygen renewal in the ice season. Climate impact of lakes is provided by methane release from shallow eutrophic lakes in the melting period. Primary production is observed in the near-surface layer under ice in large amounts in spring but also in mid-winter if sunlight can penetrate the ice cover. There are habitats of life also inside ice, in the slush layer and in pores in melting ice. Shoreline erosion and bottom scouring by moving ice have influence on the near-shore ecosystems. People have lived at ice-covered lakes already in the Stone Age, and ice tools have been found 9000 years old. Due to the impact of lake ice on local communities, lake ice conditions have been monitored within environmental service systems based on satellite remote sensing and local observers, including citizen science. These long-term data are also valuable for scientific research. The present utilization of ice covers mostly on-ice traffic, fishing, skiing and skating, ice-water bathing, and many kind of events. For the local population the length of ice season is critical from the view point of boating, while the length of safe ice season, from ice thickness reaching 10–20 cm to the beginning of the melting period, is critical for on-ice activities.

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  1. Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Matti Leppäranta

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Leppäranta, M. (2023). Ice-Covered Lakes Environment. In: Freezing of Lakes and the Evolution of Their Ice Cover. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25605-9_8

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