Biology Professor David Richardson works with international group to publish study on lake ice

Longtime lake ecology scientist and New Paltz faculty David Richardson recently partnered with an international group of collaborators from Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States to conduct a longitudinal study on lake ice variability, which was published in the February issue of Limnology and Oceanography, the flagship journal of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. 

Lake ice in the wintertime is an important resource within a community, supporting cultural activities, native biodiversity, and local economies. With climate change, ice cover during the winter seasons is decreasing in lakes worldwide, with more lakes experiencing ice-free winters or melt freeze cycles. 

With his collaborators, Richardson gathered ice data from 43 lakes around the world going back 87 years, including Mohonk Lake in New Paltz. The study indicates how the ice season will be more and more variable in many lakes with one year having 2 months of ice and the next having no ice at all. Year-to-year variability will increase until the ice season shrinks to a month in length. From then on, the year-to-year variability gets smaller until the ice is lost, and winters are ice free.     

“Our understanding of the patterns in year-to-year changes in the length of ice cover needs improvement so that communities, citizens, and managers can better plan for the next winter and help mitigate the impacts of climate change,” said Richardson.  

This research is a continuation of Richardson’s extensive scholarship into the effects of climate change on lake ecology and freshwater resources. With various universities, institutions and students at New Paltz, he has embarked on a variety of studies into this crucial ecological issue.  

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