LAKE LADOGA: LIFE UNDER ICE
An exciting new project has started in lakes Onega and Ladoga, Russia, to investigate under-ice processes in the largest European lakes during the ice-covered period. This collaborative research effort includes different institutions from Switzerland (EPFL, Eawag, UniGE), Russia (NWPI, IL, AARI, NIERSC) and France (INRA-Thonon-les-Bains).
From March 13 to 28, 2015, a large team of scientists including the Institute F.-A. Forel sampled at Lake Onega. The Microbial Ecology Group at Institut Forel aims to obtain detailed insight into how phytoplankton communities at different lake depths develop in response to the dynamics in lake physics and chemistry (nutrients), both in winter and summer. A direct comparison of phytoplankton diversity at functional and taxonomic level as a function of depth will be made. The winter studies will teach us much on the under-studied role of phytoplankton under ice (cryophyton).
