The Cellar Image of the Day

I remember seeing this picture back in 2015 or '16 but only guessed how it happened.
The US Fish & Wildlife Service dug it up and recently posted it in a “Caption Call” contest online.

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On February 28, 2015 I was out birding when I came across an unusual sight. Along the shoreline of the lake at the refuge were vertical, 3'-4' sheets of greenish ice with dead fish trapped inside. It appeared that the fish were jumping and it looked like a freeze frame sort of photo. I looked at it in awe and took a few photos. I had gone back again on March 28, 2016 to take a few more photos, but by that time it was crumbling apart.

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Several folks have asked about this photo's backstory. Here is how the photographer, Kelly Preheim, a regular visitor to Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge, explains it: "The lake levels were low due to drought. The fish kill was due to depleted oxygen. When thick ice (particularly if it gets covered with snow) forms on a lake's surface, it blocks out the sun, and the algae/plants don’t photosynthesize and produce oxygen, thus depleting oxygen levels. If the aquatic plants and algae subsequently die and decompose, this also uses oxygen, further depleting levels, so the fish essentially suffocate from lack of oxygen. The fish died and floated to the surface. When the weather turned even colder, the ice expanded pushing it toward the shore where it buckled and went vertical. or it may have been driven there by very strong winds. The thousands of frozen fish on the lake attracted hundreds of Bald Eagles, various gulls and American Crows as they fed on the dead fish. It was quite a sight and it smelled very fishy out there for quite awhile."

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Correction: Jan. 31, 2017
An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to oxygen created through the process of photosynthesis. While carbon dioxide and water are turned into carbohydrates and oxygen, the oxygen comes from two water molecules; it is not the case that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

That first picture is what they'd probably look like in water on the International Space Station.

Shit, I just noticed I posted the wrong picture in the 2nd spot.

Should have been...

Is that saying that plants do not turn carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis? Did I miss something? I thought that's what they taught us at school?

The plants need sunlight to do that. And all the snow and ice blocks the sunlight.

The plants produce oxygen through photosynthesis but obtains the oxygen from water while the carbon dioxide is converted to carbohydrates. A tree will take carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground to feed photosynthesis.

So... if I had a plant in water in a sealed container, with no carbon dioxide in the container's air but some magic method of injecting carbohydrates into the plant so it didn't need to create its own... it would still make oxygen?

No, it would live feeding on the carbohydrates but no photosynthesis without carbon dioxide and water.

You can live with IV nutrients but no pleasure without burger and fries.