Ice duration data records the day of freeze-up and thaw for seven primary lakes in Wisconsin's Northern Highland Lakes District. Observations are made daily during freeze and thaw periods by the North Temperate Lakes site affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Limnology. The study area covers approximately 10,000 square kilometers with one of the world's highest concentrations of lakes.
Use Cases
- Modeling climate change impacts by analyzing trends in freeze-up and thaw dates over time.
- Correlating ice duration with lake characteristics like size, depth, and fertility for ecological studies.
- Validating remote sensing ice cover products using ground-truth observations of daily freeze/thaw status.
- Studying seasonal ecosystem dynamics influenced by ice cover periods from late November to late April.
Strengths
- Long-term observational records from a dedicated ecological research program (LTER).
- Covers seven distinct lakes within a 10,000 sq. km. region with high lake density.
- Includes lakes representing a range of conditions from oligotrophic to eutrophic and 0.1 to 1,500 hectares in size.
Limitations
- Limited to seven primary lakes, which may not represent all lake types globally.
- Unknown row count and temporal range for the specific ice duration dataset.
- Geographic bias focused solely on the Northern Highland Lakes District of Wisconsin.
Provenance
- Source
- Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, North Temperate Lakes (NTL) site, Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Collection Method
- Daily visual observations recorded during times of lake freeze and thaw.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Northern Highland Lakes District of Wisconsin, USA, covering approximately 10,000 square kilometers.