Lake snow removal experiment phytoplankton community data, under ice, 2019-2021

Although it is a historically understudied season, winter is now recognized as a time
of biological activity and relevant to the annual cycle of north-temperate lakes. Emerging
research points to a future of reduced ice cover duration and changing snow conditions that
will impact aquatic ecosystems. The aim of the study was to explore how altered snow and ice
conditions, and subsequent changes to under-ice light environment, might impact ecosystem
dynamics in a north, temperate bog lake in northern Wisconsin, USA. This dataset resulted from
a snow removal experiment that spanned the periods of ice cover on South Sparkling Bog during
the winters of 2019, 2020, and 2021. During the winters 2020 and 2021, snow was removed from
the surface of South Sparkling Bog using an ARGO ATV with a snow plow attached. The 2019
season served as a reference year, and snow was not removed from the lake. This dataset
represents phytoplankton community samples (pooled epilimnion and hypolimnion samples
representative of 7 m water column) both under-ice and during some shoulder-season (open
water) dates. Samples were collected into amber bottles and preserved with Lugol's solution
before they were sent to Phycotech Inc. (St. Joseph MI, USA) for phytoplankton taxonomic
identification and quantification.