More than half of the world's lakes are seasonally ice-covered (Verpoorter et al., 2014). A large fraction of lakes are located between 60° and 66°N, where the annual ice season lasts more than 150 days (Leppäranta, 2015). An ice and snow covered lake is remarkably different than one with an open water surface with respect to the optical, thermal, and mechanical properties. Freezing of lakes brings a divergent seasonal aquatic environment compared with the open-water period in terms of lake physics, chemistry, and ecology. For instance, the lake ice cover largely reduces the solar radiation into the water body, keeps the water body cold, and shelters the water body from atmospheric deposition and wind stirring, weakening, or even ceasing the hydrodynamics (Kirillin et al., 2012). These physical changes can drive or facilitate the migration and transformation of nutrients and metals (