Yesterday, we gathered at the upstairs windows here in the office and watched as spring thunderstorms blew in across Lake Medota and set a giant slab of ice drifting past Hasler Lab. The sheet of ice appeared to be roughly a quarter the size of the lake itself. If was truly astonishing, like observing some …
Large-river specialist fishes—from giant species like paddlefish and blue catfish, to tiny crystal darters and silver chub – are in danger. According to a new study, in the U.S. 60 out of 68 species, or 88% of fish species found exclusively in large-river ecosystems like the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers, are of state, federal or …
Well, it’s that time of the week again. The day in Wisconsin offers up its fabulous fish fry dinners and the day here at the blog where we celebrate some of our favorite fishes. If you missed the first installment of “Fish Fry Day,” you can learn more about that beautiful panfish, the pumpkinseed, by …
Before the ice melts off these lakes here in Madison (we will get ice-off this year, right???), we thought we’d share a report from our senior research technician, Ted Bier, who you may have seen out with facilities manager, Dave Harring, drilling holes in the ice around town this winter as they collected data for …
Last Tuesday, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency released the results of a comprehensive study that measured the vital signs of 1.2 million miles of American rivers and streams. The prognosis wasn’t great. Measuring things like water clarity, nutrient pollution, bacteria levels and mercury contamination, the EPA found that 55% of the river miles studied …
Last summer, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Limnology and Wright State University in Ohio, were on the shores of Africa’s Lake Tanganyika, the oldest and deepest of the African rift lakes, for the field season. CFL grad student, Ben Kraemer, decided a summer wasn’t long enough and decided to …
Here in Wisconsin, the end of the work week is often celebrated with a dinner of lightly battered, deep-fried deliciousness. We’re talking bluegill, perch, walleye and, for those not yet hip enough to eat our delectable native fish – cod. Here at the blog, we decided we’d celebrate the quintessential fish fry by taking some …
The Saint Louis River Estuary is a rare type of freshwater ecosystem that receives significant amounts of water from both the incoming rivers and Lake Superior. While estuaries are common along coastlines where rivers empty into the big blue sea, it’s less common to find a river running into a large-enough body of freshwater like …
Only 2.5% of all the water on earth is freshwater. 70% of that freshwater is frozen into glaciers and snowpacks in mountainous regions, leaving a tiny fraction of all water on earth available for every living thing that needs a drink. How do we protect and preserve this precious resource? Can a future featuring a …
Happy World Water Day! While we’ve got it pretty good in this country when it comes to clean and available water, getting to that point took a lot of political action, public pressure and well-crafted laws. In honor of that, we offer the video below on the history (and future) of Wisconsin’s water. UW Law …