South Sparkling Bog snow removal

We conducted a whole lake experiment on a small, 8 m deep dystrophic bog lake in Northern Wisconsin, where we removed all snowfall over two consecutive winters. Under these conditions, the lake rapidly cooled in early and mid-winter, compared to snow covered conditions that insulated the lake from heat loss. The lake also rapidly gained heat in late winter resulting in isothermal conditions well in advance of ice-off. These results shed light on the role of snow on under-ice thermal dynamics, which are relevant to futures with snow droughts.