The 3d International Winter Limnology Symposium

The 3d international Symposium of Winter Limnology (2012) planned for Finse has been cancelled due to dwindling interest.

Finse Alpine Research Centre in midwinter

Background

In textbooks of limnology, winter is generally considered as an invariable and unimportant season. However, such a perception is unwarranted. Winter is an essential part of the seasonal cycle of water bodies because it affects the functioning of the ecosystem in various time scales, often extending to summer. Consequently, very little attention has been paid to limnological research in winter. Recently there are indications of clear research stimuli in winter limnology, to a great extent due to the concern about climate warming - probably the most serious environmental challenge to mankind ever. In lakes, climate warming seems to affect predominantly winter conditions. This poses a challenge to one of the most neglected topic of limnology. At the same time, the development of technology is fortunately overcoming many of the practical problems that earlier hampered research under harsh winter conditions. Hence, the possibilities to acquire unprecedented short and long term data as well as short and long distance spatial resolution even under the ice have dramatically increased.

The above background information led to the organization of two Winter Limnology Symposia (http://www.jyu.fi/bio/hyb/Winter/; http://2ndwinterlimnology.igb-berlin.de/) and finally to the formal recognition of the WG Winter Limnology as a SIL group. Here, winter is considered rather broadly and it includes high latitude as well as temperate lakes with a regular or an irregular seasonal ice cover. The aims of the Working Group are to bring together experts in various disciplines to stimulate thinking over a wide perspective, including regional and global ones and to enhance collaborative ecosystem investigations of lakes in winter. The main tools of the activity are the biennial symposia in winter limnology, and communication through the Internet pages (http://www.jyu.fi/bio/hyb/WGL/).

The first Symposium of Winter Limnology was organized at Kilpisjärvi, Finland in 2008 and its proceedings were published in Aquatic Ecology in 2009 (http://www.springerlink.com/content/ 1386-2588/43/3/). The second symposium was held in 2010 at Liebenberg near Berlin, Germany and the following Winter Limnology Symposium will be organised at Finse Alpine Research Center, located in central South Norway, Thursday 12th – Monday 16th April, 2012. Although there are no public roads to the Center, the Oslo-Bergen railroad is usually open through the winter and the train stops at the Finse railway station (1222 m.a.s.l.) at very convenient skiing distance (1.4 km - alternative transport may be arranged).

Information

For information about  The SIL Working Group of Winter Limnology, please contact Pauliina.salmi@helsinki.fi . Information about the cancelled The 3d International Winter Limnology Symposium are available here.

 

Tags: Winter limnology, Limnology By Dag Klaveness, Kalevi Salonen
Published Dec. 13, 2010 12:36 PM - Last modified Feb. 8, 2013 3:14 PM