From a stunning image of Lake Erie on March 10, 2025 taken with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, which coincided with a sampling and data collection date for Dr. Mike McKay and his team, ice cover can be seen partially covering Lake Erie. In the open water, swirls of colour can be seen, which correspond to resuspended sediment and phytoplankton in the water. Dr. Mike McKay discusses the importance of ice as a substrate on and under which Diatoms grow. Diatoms are a type of algal phytoplankton which become more prevalent in winter, and can produce winter and early spring algal blooms, and may be predictors of summer harmful algal blooms of other types of phytoplankton such as blue-green algae. More research needs to be done to fully understand the relationship between winter and summer ecosystems.
Read the article and image which was published on NASA's Earth Observatory website