So much of what we know about the ecosystem of the Great Lakes comes from research done in the warmer months. The simple reason is that it is harder to gain access to be on the water in months where the lake is intermittently covered with ice, often treacherous and unnavigable. Plus, the winter months find many science educators busy teaching students on land. But that means so much of the annual life cycles of these enormous freshwater lakes remain unknown. Kirill Shchapov, a PhD candidate and researcher at the University of Minnesota Duluth Large Lakes Observatory, compares this to skipping half of a novel, leaving much of the story untold.
Researchers across the Great Lakes region are participating in the "Winter Grab" to better understand the ecosystems of the Great Lakes during the winter. Shchapov talks to The North 1033 about what the Large Lakes Observatory and nineteen other institutions are up to on the Great Lakes this winter, a combined effort that could reveal immense amounts of new information.
