Integrating Perspectives to Understand Lake Ice Dynamics in a Changing World

Ice cover plays a critical role in physical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes in lakes. Despite its importance, winter limnology remains relatively understudied. Here, we provide a primer on the predominant drivers of freshwater lake ice cover and the current methodologies used to study lake ice, including in situ and remote sensing observations, physical based models, and experiments. We highlight opportunities for future research by integrating these four disciplines to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of lake ice dynamics in changing winters. Advances in technology, data integration, and interdisciplinary collaboration will allow the field to move toward developing global forecasts of lake ice cover for small to large lakes across broad spatial and temporal scales, quantifying ice quality and ice thickness, moving from binary to continuous ice records, and determining how winter ice conditions and quality impact ecosystem processes in lakes over winter. Ultimately, integrating disciplines will improve our ability to understand the impacts of changing winters on lake ice. Plain Language Summary Lakes are experiencing accelerated rates of warming, including shorter seasonal duration of ice cover, later ice-on, earlier ice-off, and in some years no ice cover at all. Lake ice has been historically studied independently by four subdisciplines: observations by in situ and remote sensing scientists, controlled mesocosm experiments by limnologists, and process-based models by physical modelers. Here, we highlight opportunities for collaboration between disciplines and provide guidelines to successfully integrate the disciplines to tackle the most urgent questions surrounding lake ice loss in warming climates.