Hidden depths: why do we know so little about what happens to a lake in winter?

Lake ecology during the colder months has been poorly studied until recently, but data from the Lake District shows winter plays a vital role in freshwater ecosystems

It is a cold January morning and mist hangs over Windermere like a thick wool blanket. The lake looks to be asleep. The researchers that have gathered on its shores to sample the water peer into the distance and decide that visibility is too poor to take the boat out today.

Unpredictable weather is one reason lake ecology during the winter has been poorly studied until recently. Dr Stephen Thackeray, a lake ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and project leader of the Cumbrian Lakes Monitoring Platform, says there also used to be a preconception that not much was happening during the colder months.