UW-Madison Limnology scientist assistant, Zach Feiner, explained that organisms in the lake time their life cycles based on when the lake freezes and thaws.
“You have things like fish that hatch and they don’t have enough food to survive, or they have zooplankton that emerge and they’re mistimed with their algae food resources,” said Feiner. “So it can really mess up lake food webs by having these seasons mistimed and altered by climate change.”