Year: 2014

Magnuson Named 2014 Wisconsin Academy Fellow

Excuse us for tooting our own horn here, but the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters just announced the addition of seven distinguished people to its Wisconsin Academy Fellows roster. Our very own John Magnuson is one of them. According to the Wisconsin Academy, it’s fellows are individuals who have shown “extraordinary levels of …

Fish Fry Day: It’s Lake Sturgeon Season on Lake WInnebago!

Happy Fish Fry Day! Not only is it today the day restaurants put delectably fried fish on their menus, it’s also the eve of the Lake Winnebago Sturgeon Spearing season! Luckily, we happen to know the woman who wrote the book (literally) on Wisconsin’s lake sturgeon and we asked her for a Q & A. …

Slideshow: “Kids on Ice” for Annual Winter Limnology Program

Over the course of four Saturdays, from January 25th – February 15th, Center for Limnology graduate students are instructing a group of middle school students on the fundamentals of how limnologists do their research on frozen waters.     The program is part of the larger University of Wisconsin’s Saturday Enrichment Program. Over the course …

Fish Fry Day: Sturgeon Take the Elevator & Climate Change Ruins Everything

Happy Fish Fry Day! Battered, fried deliciousness will on Wisconsin menus this evening, so consider this an appetizer. Before you tuck in to a plate of bluegill, perch, walleye or (if you must) cod, here are two pieces of ichthyological info sure to impress a friend or two. 1. Sturgeon Take the Elevator Our friends …

CSI Limnology: Team-Building Crucial for “Team Science”

by Samantha Oliver Around the world, more and more scientists are working together to answer some of our biggest biological and ecological questions. Science is often seen as a private enterprise carried out in an individual’s lab. But, today, especially in ecological circles, it involves gigantic datasets from far-flung locations and a dedicated team of …

Ice is Nice: Three Perks to the Polar Vortex

We get it. It is cold. Face (and mind) numbingly cold. But that’s not an “all bad” thing. There’s a lot to like about a real winter. And it begins with ice. Here are three things to celebrate during the winter that brought “polar vortex” into our vocabulary! 1. Ice Caves For the first time …

Scenarios: Using Science Fiction to Think About the Future

by Jenny Seifert Change is constant and inevitable—in jobs, in relationships, in business, and in nature. It can make us feel downright powerless to realize that nothing is certain. So why even bother trying to plan ahead? Well, when it comes to thinking about how people might cope with big changes that will affect us …

Study IDs 10-year Water Level Cycle in Great Lakes, Says Current Lows Buck Trend

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact Carl Watras, 715-356-9494, cjwatras@facstaff.wisc.edu BOULDER JUNCTION, WI – For at least the last seventy years, lakes and aquifers in northern Wisconsin have followed the same pattern – after higher than average peaks, water levels spend about ten years on a downward trend before abruptly spiking up again, only to repeat the …

Fish Fry Day: Sifting Through Seagull “Deposits” for Fish Facts

We apologize for the unsavory nature of this post on the day we celebrate Wisconsin’s fabulous fried fish culinary tradition, but we promise to leave out the gory details! After a summer spent in the shimmering waters of Crystal Lake, the Crystal Mixing Crew is hunkered down in the lab processing the samples they collected …

Fish Forced into “Hunger Games” When Lakes Lose Trees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  In attempts to predict what climate change will mean for life in lakes, scientists have mainly focused on two things: the temperature of the water and the amount of oxygen dissolved in it. But a new study from University of Wisconsin researchers is speaking for the trees – specifically, the dead ones …