Located in the Wright Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, Lake Vanda exhibits some of the most unique physical properties of the world’s lakes. At the top of the lake, 3 m of perennial lake ice overly dilute waters with temperatures of 4 °C. The bottom of the lake at 75 m contains waters which are over twice the salinity of sea water and have temperatures above 21 °C. In between are two, 20-m-thick thermohaline convection cells separated by a sharp pycnocline. From November to December 2013, an international team of five researchers from Canterbury University in New Zealand, the Natural History Museum in London, the University of California, Davis, and the State University of New York, Oneonta, studied the physical and biological characteristics of Lake Vanda. The project goal was to identify recent changes in circulation and ecology of the lake which have resulted from recent lake level rise driven by regional climate change. Over the season, we collected 175 conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) profiles in the lake with high resolution temporal and spatial variability using a YSI CastAway. The size, weight, and durability of the instrument were well suited for one individual to make multiple casts through 8” diameter ice boreholes under cold weather conditions. Preliminary data show the seasonal response of the water column to daily solar radiation and stream discharge. This project was funded by Antarctic New Zealand. Photos courtesy of Devin Castendyk.
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