Fig 1.
Four Web of Science searches for titles and abstracts were conducted using the search string (lake* OR reservoir* OR pond) AND season (winter, autumn, spring, or summer) for studies published between 2000 and 2024.
Search results for: A) the proportion of total limnological studies published in each year focusing on spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and B) the cumulative number of publications for each season. To illustrate that limnological data collection is uncommon relative to summer and spring, we highlight: C) the number of secchi disk samples collected in the United States by month based on data available in the Water Quality Portal (De La Torre et al. 2025). Together, these results imply that not only is autumn less well studied in the limnological literature, but also publicly available data necessary to synthesize autumnal change are lacking.