by Sydney Widell Mike Smale, Kevin Gauthier and I have been driving through Wisconsin’s northern forests for nearly an hour when Kevin rolls to a stop in a clearing. Ahead of us, blocking the road, is a gated checkpoint. Kevin rummages in his wallet for his access card. When he finds it, the gate swings upward, …
A new study says that, despite dozens of locks and dams and backwater habitats that slow it’s flow, the Upper Mississippi River isn’t good at retaining the nitrates that run into its waters from intensively farmed states like Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. Published July 12th in Environmental Research Letters, the study finds that only12.5% of …
For the last several years, the Center for Limnology’s Trout Lake Station has hosted an “artist-in-residence” program each summer. Our summer science communication intern spent a day with one of the 2018 artists, Mary Burns. You can learn more about the program (and see some beautiful aquatic-inspired art) at the Drawing Water website. …
by Sydney Widell If you’ve never heard of Littorella, you are definitely not alone. Incredibly rare, this grassy aquatic plant only graces the beds of a few select lakes in Northern Wisconsin. Today, Susan Knight, expert botanist and Trout Lake Station’s director, is on a mission to track some down. We’re headed to Little John …
A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says we are dramatically underestimating the role inland fisheries play in global food security. While it’s widely known that people across the world rely on freshwater fishes caught in lakes, rivers and streams to supply protein in their diet, putting a …
by Sydney Widell When talk show host Larry Meiller ventures up to the Northwoods, it’s usually to camp or fish. But on Wednesday, June 6th, the legend of Wisconsin airwaves spent the evening with Science on Tap-Minocqua at the Minocqua Brewing Company, where he reflected on his 51 year career at Wisconsin Public Radio. Meiller …
Think algae are gross? A new website will make you take a closer look. Dedicated to Lake Mendota’s diatoms – single-celled members of the brown algae classification – the website serves as a field guide of sorts to the beautiful, microscopic organisms in the picture above. Diatoms are quite amazing. They produce around 20% of …
After last week’s massive cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) bloom in Lake Mendota and smaller (but no less unpleasant) blooms reported in Lake Monona and Waubesa, we received all sorts of questions on what causes these blooms, if they are dangerous and how to stop them. Here are some answers to a few of the frequently asked …
A couple of weeks ago, after yet another round of intense rain in the Madison area, we headed over to the website of the Wisconsin State Climatology office, curious if we were seeing more rain than normal. The answer was, yes, yes we were. In fact, our little corner of Dane County had received anywhere …
Necessity, of course, is the mother of invention. And scientific fieldwork is often the mother of necessity. Researchers are constantly having to invent new ways to collect data in challenging environments. What follows is a running diary of a marathon day of monitoring carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and testing new equipment on Lake Mendota. But, …