Limnology

All Programs

Photo by: Reed Bowman

Archbold's Lake Annie is one of few subtropical lakes in the world under continuous study. It serves as a timekeeper of Florida's past, present, and future. Scientific discoveries are drawn from sediment records, monthly sampling, and monitoring buoys. Archbold collaborates with scientists around the world feeding data into regional to global networks, informing how lakes respond to change in Florida and worldwide.

Program Information

More about this program

Primary Research Areas

Long-term limnology, Paleoecology - sediment cores, Climate change , Phytoplankton communities, Water quality

Primary Location(s)

Archbold Biological Station, ~80 lake Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network (gleon.org) , ~2000+ lake network in Florida Lakewatch (lakewatch.ifas.ufl.edu).

People working in this program

Hilary Swain, Ph.D.

Executive Director & CEO, Senior Research Biologist

Evelyn Gaiser, Ph.D.

Research Associate

Amartya Saha, Ph.D.

Ecohydrologist/Instrumentation Specialist

Kevin Main, B.S.

Land Manager

Mark Brenner, Ph.D.

Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, University of Florida

William Kenney, Ph.D.

Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, University of Florida

Jason Curtis, Ph.D.

Dept of Geology, University of Florida

Jason M. Evans, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience

William A. Watts (deceased)

Trinity College, Dublin

Eric Grimm, Ph.D. (deceased)

Illinois State Museum

Meredith Emery Boeck

Graduate Student, Florida International University

Amanda Quillen

Graduate Student, Florida International University

Nancy Deyrup, M.S.

Larry Battoe, Ph.D.

former Post-Doc (retired)

Kristy Lee Sullivan

former Graduate Student, Florida International University

Vivienne Sclater, M.A.

Director of Data and Technology

Related Projects

Photo by: Dustin Angell

Palaeoecology

Sediment cores representing the last 40,000 years give insight into climate change and recent land use trends.

Photo by: Kristy Sullivan

Long-term Lake Annie records

Long-term data determine trends over time in the physical, chemical, and biological features of this subtropical lake.

Kevin Main Dr. Amartya Saha (Archbold), Andri Laidre (Flydog) and in the water Dr. Evelyn Gaiser (FIU) deploying buoy in Lake Annie, April 1-2, 2022. Photo by Gabe Kamener (FIU).

Photo by: Gabe Kamener

Buoys and Sensors

The Lake Annie buoy collects hourly/daily lake data to understand changes in features such as algae blooms, temperature mixing, nutrients for algae, oxygen for animals, and contributions to changing greenhouse gases.

Meeting of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network hosted by Archbold in February 2008.

Networked lake science

Understanding lake science, contributing data to regional, state, and global monitoring/science networks, and collaborating with global scientists to help solve the challenges facing lakes around the world.

Featured Videos

Lakes write music. Science is listening.

Evelyn Gaiser | TEDx A classically trained musician, Dr. Evelyn Gaiser Archbold Research Associate translated high-frequency Lake Annie data to musical compositions to better understand and describe changes. Youtube TedXFIU. 18 mins.

Paleoecology of a Florida Lake

with Dr. Mark Brenner (University of Florida), who demonstrates in detail the process of coring a lake and discusses his career in paleoecology. This was filmed at Archbold Biological Station's Lake Annie, Florida. 13.48 mins. Archbold’s YouTube Channel.

Eyes on Lake Annie

A video by Into Nature Films. Describes the two-day launch during March, 2022, of the new data buoy into the middle of Archbold’s Lake Annie on the Lake Wales Ridge. Vimeo 7 mins.

Lake Annie virtual field tour

Selfie Shorts - Florida history at Lake Annie with Mr. Dustin

Archbold's Director of Education, Dustin Angell talks about the outsized history of Lake Annie, in the interior of Florida. 3 mins. Archbold’s YouTube Channel.

Coring Lake Annie

Featured News & Publications

Climate change drives widespread shifts in lake thermal habitat.

The extent and variability of storm-induced temperature changes in lakes measured with long-term and high-frequency data.

Dissolved organic carbon as a driver of seasonal and multiyear phytoplankton assembly oscillations in a subtropical monomictic lake.

Cyclical browning in a subtropical lake inferred from diatom records.

Post-restoration plant community changes in grazed and ungrazed seasonal wetlands in Florida

Photo by: Luca Marazzi

Photo by: Jennifer Brown, Into Nature Films

Photo by R. Tucker

Collaborators & Stakeholders

https://www.uu.nl/en/research/department-of-earth-sciences/marine-palynology-and-paleoceanography

Networks

Funders

Explore Internships in Limnology

Although Archbold does not have a staff limnologist, the long-term data and intrinsic values of the lake for research has attracted researchers from many countries. Students from across the USA have conducted fieldwork for Masters and PhD theses, including studies of hydrology, paleo, water quality, dissolved organic carbon, and plankton communities.

Most recently the Gaiser Laboratory at Florida International University has supported extensive graduate research on paleoecology and diatom communities. Many classes, including University of Florida and Florida International University, use Lake Annie for field courses.