AbstractDuring two winters, the benthic invertebrates in a shallow northern Swedish lake (66 °N) were studied. The lake is ice‐covered for about 200 days a year. Live Lamellibranchiata, Oligochaeta. Hydracarina, Isopoda, Heteroptera, Cole optera and Diptera were found in samples of ice and of frozen lake‐bottom sediments. During the winter in which the bottom froze deepest, a 70–90% decrease in numbers of live Chironomidae larvae was recorded between the autumn and following early