Timescales of growth response of microbial mats to environmental change in an ice-covered antarctic lake.

Lake Vanda is a perennially ice-covered, closed-basin lake in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Laminated photosynthetic microbial mats cover the floor of the lake from below the ice cover to >40 m depth. In recent decades, the water level of Lake Vanda has been rising, creating a "natural experiment" on development of mat communities on newly flooded substrates and the response of deeper mats to declining irradiance.

Discovery of large conical stromatolites in Lake Untersee, Antarctica.

Lake Untersee is one of the largest (11.4 km(2)) and deepest (>160 m) freshwater lakes in East Antarctica. Located at 71°S the lake has a perennial ice cover, a water column that, with the exception of a small anoxic basin in the southwest of the lake, is well mixed, supersaturated with dissolved oxygen, alkaline (pH 10.