Water column gradients beneath the summer ice of a High Arctic freshwater lake as indicators of sensitivity to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Ice cover persists throughout summer over many lakes at extreme polar latitudes but is likely to become increasingly rare with ongoing climate change. Here we addressed the question of how summer ice-cover affects the underlying water column of Ward Hunt Lake, a freshwater lake in the Canadian High Arctic, with attention to its vertical gradients in limnological properties that would be disrupted by ice loss. Profiling in the deepest part of the lake under thick mid-summer ice revealed a high degree of vertical structure, with gradients in temperature, conductivity and dissolved gases. Dissolved oxygen, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane rose with depth to concentrations well above air-equilibrium, with oxygen values at > 150% saturation in a mid-water column layer of potential conv

SUBMITTER: Begin PN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7858640 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature