Year: 2014

Mud Masks from 22 Feet Underground

by Meredith Smalley Here at Trout Lake Station, the bog walk is a revered and cherished opportunity. Any chance to tromp around in our boots is a welcome break from the bogged-down schedule of daily routine. Beginning with a jaunt to Crystal Bog, I tagged along with a group of graduate students from UW–Madison as they …

Fish Fry Day Video: An Encounter with a Prehistoric Fish

Followers of this blog will know that Soloman David, the post-doctoral researcher we share with the Shedd Aquarium, is an unapologetic lover of prehistoric fish and a whiz with a GoPro camera. For this Friday, he sent in a recent encounter with a bowfin.  Bowfin (also known as dogfish or mudfish) are a truly remarkable …

Video: Yahara 2070 – Science Fiction Predicts Science Fact

We’re a little late in featuring this wonderfully done piece from QUEST, a group of six public media outfits from across the country, collaborating to provide an in-depth look at the science of sustainability. But here is a great introduction to the Yahara 2070 scenarios. To learn more about the scenarios, you can check out …

Summer of Outreach Starts with Front-Row Seats to Mining Debate

by Meredith Smalley Hello there! I’m Meredith Smalley, and I’ll spend this summer writing about my experience working as the summer outreach intern and living at the University of Wisconsin-Trout Lake Station in Boulder Junction, WI. I hope I can use this opportunity to share what I discover during my short stay in the Northwoods …

Fish Fry Day: Undergrad Relishes Her Summer Job Dissecting Perch

Limnology, unfortunately, can’t always be about the fieldwork. For every sunny day spent out on a boat in a lake, weeks and months pile up as our students and faculty retreat back to the lab and their computers to try to make sense of all the data they’ve collected. Even though she’s only an undergrad, …

Trout Lake Station “Artist-in-Residence” Program Inspires Art/Science Connection

This summer, Trout Lake Station hosted it’s 2nd annual artist-in-residence – painter, Helen Klebesadel. The program hopes to create collaborative art and science projects focusing on the long-term ecology of lakes. Below is Helen’s recap of her time “up north.” I have just returned from a splendid ten days of non-stop plein air painting (and …

CFL at the Shedd: 10,000+ “Migrate” to Aquarium on World Fish Migration Day

When the doors to Chicago’s world-famous Shedd Aquarium opened the Saturday before Memorial Day, Center for Limnology researchers were scrambling to get last-second details in place. Thousands of “fish passports,” a half dozen posters and two enormous fish-researcher cut-outs were at the ready. It was May 24th, World Fish Migration Day. By the day’s end …

Clear-Water Phase: Are We Missing Lake Mendota’s Window?

Over the last two weeks, Lake Monona, Lake Waubesa, and Lake Kegonsa have all entered into their annual rite of spring’s clear-water phase. Lake Mendota, however, remains a murky mystery. Why are the downstream Yahara lakes so clear, when the lake at the top of the chain isn’t? Perhaps more important, are we going to …

Video: (Migratory) Fish Fry Day – Spawning Suckers

Tomorrow is World Fish Migration Day! We’ll help host activity stations at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, site of just one of 270 events around the globe celebrating the day. Below is an amazing underwater video taken by CFL grad student, Evan Childress, of longnose suckers in Lily Bay Creek, a Door County tributary of Lake Michigan. …

CFL at the Shedd Aquarium: World Fish Migration Day, May 24th!

At the break of dawn this Saturday, May 24th, Center for Limnology researchers and your trusty blogger will hit the road for Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Once there, we will help Shedd researchers and volunteers set up a number of activity stations celebrating World Fish Migration Day (WFMD). What is WFMD, you ask? Well, it’s a …