Search for: All records

Climate change is leading to shifts in not only the average timing of phenological events, but also their variance and predictability. Increasing phenological variability creates a stochastic environment that is critically understudied, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. We provide a perspective on the possible implications for increasingly unpredictable aquatic habitats, including more frequent trophic asynchronies and altered hydrologic regimes, focusing on ice-off phenology in lakes. Increasingly frequent phenological extremes may limit the ability of organisms to optimize traits required to adapt to a warming environment. Using a unique, long-term ecological dataset on Escanaba Lake, WI, USA, as a case study, we show that the average date of ice-off is shifting earlier and becoming more variable, thus altering limnological conditions and yielding uncoupled food web responses with ramifications for fish spawn timing and recruitment success. A genes-to-ecosystems understanding of the responses of aquatic communities to increasingly variable phenology is needed. Our perspective suggests that management for diversity, at the intra- and interspecific levels, will become paramount for conserving resilient aquatic ecosystems. 

The LAGOS-US LIMNO data package is one of the core data modules of LAGOS-US, an extensible research-ready platform designed to study the 479,950 lakes and reservoirs larger than or equal to 1 ha in the conterminous US (48 states plus the District of Columbia). The LIMNO module contains in situ observations of 47 parameters of lake physics, chemistry, and biology (hereafter referred to as chemistry) from lake surface samples (defined as observations taken from the epilimnion of a lake) obtained from the Water Quality Portal, the National Lakes Assessment (2007, 2012, 2017), and NEON programs. LIMNO provides 3,511,020 observations across all parameters collected between 1975 and 2021 from 20,329 lakes; the number of observations per lake ranged from 1 to 20,605 with a median of 32. The database design that supports the LAGOS-US research platform was created based on several important design features: lakes are the fundamental unit of consideration, all lakes in the spatial extent above the minimum size must be represented, and most information is connected to individual lakes. The design is modular, interoperable (the modules can be used with each other, as well as other comprehensive lake data products such as the USGS NHD), and extensible (future database modules can be developed and used in the LAGOS-US research platform by others). Users are encouraged to use the other two core data modules that are part of the LAGOS-US platform: LOCUS (location, identifiers, and physical characteristics of lakes and their watersheds) and GEO (characteristics defining geospatial and temporal ecological setting quantified at multiple spatial divisions) that are each found in their own data packages. 

This dataset includes model configurations, scripts and outputs to process and recreate the outputs from Ladwig et al. (2021): Long-term Change in Metabolism Phenology across North-Temperate Lakes. The provided scripts will process the input data from various sources, as well as recreate the figures from the manuscript. Further, all output data from the metabolism models of Allequash, Big Muskellunge, Crystal, Fish, Mendota, Monona, Sparkling and Trout are included. 

This dataset includes model configurations, scripts and outputs to process and recreate the outputs from Ladwig et al. (2021): Long-term Change in Metabolism Phenology across North-Temperate Lakes. The provided scripts will process the input data from various sources, as well as recreate the figures from the manuscript. Further, all output data from the metabolism models of Allequash, Big Muskellunge, Crystal, Fish, Mendota, Monona, Sparkling and Trout are included. 

To investigate the effect of a winter with decreased snow cover on greenhouse gas emissions, we experimentally removed snowfall from a small dystrophic lake in northern Wisconsin. As a comparative study, we were able to explore the role of light in under-ice gas dynamics and spring emissions in dimictic lakes. This dataset contains greenhouse gas and temperature/dissolved oxygen profile data collected on South Sparkling and Trout Bog during the winter of 2020 through the winter of 2021. Data were collected between 09 January 2020 and 13 April 2021 in the deep hole of both bogs. Dissolved greenhouse gas concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane were measured using the headspace equilibrium method. 

Abstract Forest and freshwater ecosystems are tightly linked and together provide important ecosystem services, but climate change is affecting their species composition, structure, and function. Research at nine US Long Term Ecological Research sites reveals complex interactions and cascading effects of climate change, some of which feed back into the climate system. Air temperature has increased at all sites, and those in the Northeast have become wetter, whereas sites in the Northwest and Alaska have become slightly drier. These changes have altered streamflow and affected ecosystem processes, including primary production, carbon storage, water and nutrient cycling, and community dynamics. At some sites, the direct effects of climate change are the dominant driver altering ecosystems, whereas at other sites indirect effects or disturbances and stressors unrelated to climate change are more important. Long-term studies are critical for understanding the impacts of climate change on forest and freshwater ecosystems.