F2.4 Freeze-thaw freshwater lakes

Biome: F2. Lakes biome

Contributors:
(texts)

Many plants and animals survive surface freezing of freshwater lakes, in dormant life stages, by reducing activity beneath the ice, or by moving. Such freshwater lakes vary enormously in size and distribution, providing a wide range of habitats for many organisms, which undergo a succession of emergence during lake thaw. The annual thaw triggers highly productive plant and animal activity, beginning with diatom algae and then zooplankton. Habitat diversity increases with lake size, increasing the variety of plankton, aquatic plants, waterbugs, birds, and sometimes fish.

Key Features

Waterbodies with frozen surfaces for at least one month of the year, with spring thaw initiating trophic successional dynamics beginning with a flush of diatom productivity. Deeper lakes may be cold stratified and fish tolerate oxygen depletion in winter.

Overview of distribution

Boreal regions, cool temperate continental Eurasia and North America and high altitudes of South America regions.

Profile versions

• v1.0 (2020-01-20): RT Kingsford; LJ Jackson; DA Keith
• v2.0 (2020-06-24): RT Kingsford; S Bertilsson; LJ Jackson; B Robson; DA Keith
• v2.01 ():
• v2.1 (2022-04-06): RT Kingsford; S Bertilsson; LJ Jackson; B Robson; DA Keith Full profile available at official site

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

• Adrian R, Walz N, Hintze, T, Hoeg S, Rusche R (1999) Effects of ice duration on plankton succession during spring in a shallow polymictic lake Freshwater Biology 41: 621-634

• Bertilsson S, Burgin A, Carey CC, Fey SB, Grossart H, Grubisic LM, Jones ID, Kirillin G, Lennon JT, Shade A, Smyth RL (2013) The under-ice microbiome of seasonally frozen lakes Limnology Oceanography 58: 1998–2012

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of F2.4 Freeze-thaw freshwater lakes. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

F2.4.IM.mix_v1.0

Datasets

• HydroAtlas-1.0
• HydroLAKES-1.0

Map references

• Linke, S., Lehner, B., Ouellet Dallaire, C., Ariwi, J., Grill, G., Anand, M., Beames, P., Burchard-Levine, V., Maxwell, S., Moidu, H., Tan, F., Thieme, M. (2019) Global hydro-environmental sub-basin and river reach characteristics at high spatial resolution Scientific Data 6: 283 DOI:10.1038/s41597-019-0300-6

• Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603

F2.4.web.mix_v1.0

Location of small and large natural lakes was taken from the HydroLAKES database (types 1 an 3 in Messager et al. 2016). We included all lakes with minimum temperature below 0°C (Linke et al. 2019). Occurrences were aggregated to ten minute spatial resolution. Open image full size.

Datasets

• HydroLAKES-1.0
• HydroAtlas-1.0

Map references

• Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603

• Linke, S., Lehner, B., Ouellet Dallaire, C., Ariwi, J., Grill, G., Anand, M., Beames, P., Burchard-Levine, V., Maxwell, S., Moidu, H., Tan, F., Thieme, M. (2019) Global hydro-environmental sub-basin and river reach characteristics at high spatial resolution Scientific Data 6: 283 DOI:10.1038/s41597-019-0300-6

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