The limnological community is poised for a major leap forward in our understanding of winter processes and changing seasonal cycles in inland waters. Recent high profile syntheses of lake water temperatures and ecology under lake ice are galvanizing a scientific community, and new data streams are being amassed by in situ sensors deployed during seasonal ice cover. We are now positioned us to catalyze progress in our understanding of winter limnology inclusive to polar, alpine, and temperate systems. Continued acceleration of winter research by a geographically diverse group of investigators will generate irreplaceable information about lake dynamics and enable future research on lake-climate interactions as we enter an increasingly ice-free world.
To accelerate progress in winter limnology, we propose a Chapman Conference that will address hypotheses associated with 5 topics: climate and ice dynamics; winter and cross- seasonal biogeochemistry; biological connections across seasons; temperature dependency of biotic processes and habitat; and trophic interactions under ice.