Princess Elizabeth Land, including the lake, is claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory.

143, within East Antarctica, and access to the lake can only legally be obtained by a special permit and adhering to some strict regulations.

A diatom floristic study of the lagoon revealed that it contains 41 species and is a rich storehouse of psychrophilic photosynthetic bacteria.

Lake Burton is located on the Ingrid Christensen Coast in Princess Elizabeth Land in Eastern Antarctica on roughly the same longitude as central India.

[1][2] The lake, formerly an arm of the sea,[3] is a dominant feature of the western side of the Vestfold Hills area in what is known as the Mule Peninsula.

[5][6][7] The climate within the Antarctic Specially Protected Area is monitored at the Davis Station, which is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of Marine Plain, not far from the lake.

Permits are strictly issued only for specific scientific research in the field of paleontology, paleoclimate, geology, geomorphology, glaciology, biology and limnology.

[7] The only fish species ever sighted in the lake, and on just one occasion, is Pagothenia borchgrevinki, though it is commonly found in the vicinity in the coastal areas and fjords of the Vestfold Hills.

[7] The small water courses that flow radially from the northern direction into the lake, which are seasonal streams, abound in lichens.

Some of the findings indicate that salinity levels increase from below the ice level towards the lake bottom resulting in dense waters, the microbiota activity caused depletion of oxygen, separate water bodies of distinct chemistry got formed, the intervening chemical gradients have created niches for colonization by unique microbial communities and 68 bacteria were isolated.

[11] In 1984, during the Antarctic summer when phytoplankton bloom was apparent, the lake was studied, along with several others in the Vestfold Hills area to assess the reduced sulfuric gases by gas chromatography.

The gases were trapped in a solid adsorbent – a molecular sieve with 5 Å pores (80–100 mesh) – and reduced sulfur compounds (RSCs) were detected.