Obviously Lake Mendota is still frozen over here in the Spring of 2014. But, two years ago, Madison lakes had officially opened up (i.e. thawed) on March 10th and, by early April, we were writing …
Year: 2014
Avoiding Elephants and Studying Fish Refuges in Thailand
by Aaron Koning “At the next site we’ll have to be careful to avoid the elephants” warned my field assistant, Witu. His words would have struck me more soundly if I hadn’t come across the …
Thickest Lake Ice in Decades May Last Into Spring
Ted Bier, our senior research specialist for the Long-Term Ecological Research program, was recently photographed on Lake Monona holding this massive chunk of ice in front of the Madison skyline. That picture led to the …
Fish Fry Day Video: Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia
Happy Fish Fry Day! Thanks to our invasive species specialist, Carol Warden, for pointing this amazing trailer from Freshwaters Illustrated out to us. Who knew that Southeastern U.S. rivers rival coral reefs for color? We …
Spring Snowmelt Creates Short-Lived Ecosystems and “Master Survivalists”
Yesterday, we stumbled upon a beautiful post from “The Smaller Majority” blog about fairy shrimp, vernal pools, and the lengths organisms go to to survive in the ephemeral aquatic ecosystems that form when the winter …
Winter Writing Retreat Spurs Productivity and Pizza-Making
by Nora Casson What makes a group of limnologists head into the woods in the dead of winter? In the case of the students and post-docs in Emily Stanley’s lab, it was a need to …
Fish Fry Day: Three Reasons Fish Matter
We’re sure you’ve already got it circled on the calendar but, just in case, May 24th is World Fish Migration Day. We here at the CFL are partnering with places like The Nature Conservancy and …
Undergrads! Apply Now for Summer Jobs (& Fun) in Northern Wisconsin
Okay, so the polar vortex is paying us a visit for the third time this winter and the ice on Lake Mendota is more than 2 feet thick, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start …
A Word About This Winter: Trends and Variability
Sure it’s been a long winter, but we were surprised when all that lake ice recently got political here in Wisconsin. In January, State representative Mark Pocan told the legislature that, “Ice fishermen are already noticing …
Slideshow: LTER Winter Sampling on “Unusually” Thick Ice
Remember the polar vortex? It was just a vague memory before we stumbled across the following post from our archives. Perhaps we had blocked out memories of the winter of subzero temps cold enough to …