I was out shoveling today to rearrange some snow to create some snow free areas on the pond. Ice under the snow had primarily a clear top; very little cloudy ice developed this winter on my pond. Clear top ice is unusual for my winter iced pond conditions. Thus the sunlight can penetrate easily through the clear ice and easily stimulate DO production deep in the water by the phytoplankton: thus I did not clear the snow from shallow areas.
In the next few days I will collect a winter pond water sample and analyze it for phytoplankton. I will report back here the results to give readers an idea of what the phytoplankton is doing in my pond with 7 inches of snow cover on the ice. Stay tuned to this Pond Boss thread.
