High-frequency, hourly, and daily measurements from the West Lake Bonney "Blue Box" (WLBBB), McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica (1996-2024, ongoing)

As part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program, continuous measurements have been collected from a network of automated lake monitoring platforms in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. These lake-based stations, commonly referred to as “blue boxes” due to their historically blue instrument enclosures, provide high-frequency observations of key limnological variables essential for understanding physical drivers of aquatic ecosystem dynamics in the perennially ice-covered, meromictic lakes of this polar desert environment. This data package includes measurements from the West Lake Bonney “blue box” lake monitoring platform (WLBBB), established during the 1996-1997 austral summer in West Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley. Parameters include air and water temperature, surface and underwater photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), continuous stage (lake level), ice surface ablation, and, beginning in the 2022-2023 austral summer, dissolved oxygen (DO), reported as percent saturation due to the unavailability of continuous salinity measurements required for computing concentration. Data are provided at high frequency (typically 15-minute intervals), along with hourly and daily summaries. Users should note that summary statistics may be affected by periods of missing data. As there is no universally accepted standard for handling gaps in time-series data, users are encouraged to use the high-frequency data and establish their own criteria for acceptable data completeness to minimize potential bias.

作为麦克默多干谷长期生态研究（McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research）计划的一部分，研究团队依托南极洲麦克默多干谷的自动化湖泊监测平台网络开展了持续观测工作。这些湖基监测站因早期采用蓝色仪器外壳，通常被称为"蓝箱（blue boxes）"，可对关键湖沼学（limnology）变量进行高频观测——这些变量是理解该极地荒漠环境下常年冰盖覆盖的半循环湖水生生态系统动力学物理驱动机制的核心指标。本数据集包含位于泰勒谷邦尼西湖的西邦尼湖"蓝箱"监测平台（WLBBB）的观测数据，该平台于1996-1997年南半球夏季部署完成。观测参数涵盖气温、水温、水面及水下光合有效辐射（photosynthetically active radiation, PAR）、连续水位监测数据、冰面消融量；自2022-2023年南半球夏季起，新增溶解氧（dissolved oxygen, DO）数据，因缺乏计算浓度所需的连续盐度测量值，该数据以饱和度百分比形式上报。数据以高频格式提供（通常为15分钟间隔），同时附带逐小时及逐日汇总统计值。用户需注意，汇总统计值可能受数据缺失时段的影响。由于目前尚无针对时间序列数据缺失值处理的通用公认标准，建议用户优先使用高频原始数据，并自行设定可接受的数据完整性阈值，以尽可能降低潜在偏差。