Data and code from: Impacts of changing winters on lake ecosystems will increase with latitude

Climate warming is especially pronounced in winter and at high latitudes.
Warming winters are leading to the loss of lake ice and changing snow
cover on lakes. Historically, lake scientists have paid less attention to
the ice cover period, leading to data and theory gaps about the role of
winter conditions in lake ecosystem function and the consequences of
changing winters. Here we use simple models to show that the latitudinal
interaction between ice cover duration and light flux seasonality has
profound and underappreciated implications for lakes. Our models focus on
light and temperature, two key drivers of ecosystem processes. We show
that the relative amount of light arriving in lakes during ice cover
increases non-linearly with latitude and that the light climate of
high-latitude lakes is much more sensitive to changing winter conditions
than that of lower-latitude lakes. We also demonstrate that the
synchronicity between high light and warm temperatures may decrease with
latitude, with implications for primary and secondary production. Our
results suggest that ice loss may lead to greater relative change in
productivity and biotic interactions in higher latitude lakes and also
offer several testable predictions for understanding the consequences of
climate-induced changes across latitudinal gradients.