Summer Snapshot: Studying Small Ponds’ Impact on Madison’s Biggest Lake

by Anna Mueller – A team at the Center for Limnology is spending the summer monitoring urban ponds in Middleton, a city of roughly 20,000 people nestled on the western end of Lake Mendota. Urban ponds are usually designed for one of two purposes – recreation, like fishing or kayaking and water retention, to slow …

Flipping Rocks on a Friday, Mason Polencheck Hunts for Mudpuppies

By Maddie Gamble – Earlier this summer, I headed out on South Trout Lake with University of Wisconsin undergraduate Mason Polencheck on a mission – to find at least one, single mudpuppy  (Necturus maculosus). Mudpuppies are the only fully aquatic species of salamander in Wisconsin. Surveying and collecting data on these animals is a tedious …

Big Fish, Little Fish: Decades’ Worth of Basic Measurements Tell a Complex Tale in One Wisconsin Lake

A new study is highlighting the power of long-term research when it comes to helping scientists understand ecological processes.  In one Wisconsin lake, researchers at the UW–Madison’s Center for Limnology were able to both interpret the complexities of predator-prey dynamics between two species of fish and document impacts of an invasive zooplankton by using only …

Seeing Science Through a New Lens: Meet Maddie, Trout Lake Station’s Summer Science Communication Intern

by Madelyn Gamble – As a rising senior majoring in Journalism and Environmental studies, I was extremely excited to come across the science communication intern opportunity here at Trout Lake. I am passionate about environmental journalism as well as all things water, so the opportunity to combine these two passions this summer is a dream …

What a Difference a Day Makes: Lake Mendota Goes From Blue-Green to Crystal Clear

by Anna Mueller – I showed up at the Center for Limnology’s Hasler Lab a few hours after the sun had risen and it was already getting hot. I was sweaty from biking to work and could feel the sun burning against my hair. Like any other day, I walked around the squat CFL building …

Hasler Lab Open House This Friday, June 21!

Calling all lake lovers! (Or wetland enthusiasts, river runners, pond explorers, etc.) This Friday, June 21st, you’re invited to Hasler Lab’s Annual Open House. Each summer we pick a Friday afternoon to open the doors to our lab so that anyone in town can come learn about the world-class research going on right here in …

“Within the first few hours, I already looked at the lake differently.” Hasler Lab’s summer intern reflects on her first week.

by Anna Mueller – I have grown up in the Madison lakes – jumping into Mendota and Wingra every summer without a second thought, doing polar plunges late in the fall, fishing with my brother. And, this year, rowing competitively for the Badgers. When I enrolled for my first semester at UW Madison, I chose …

The Phantom Midge Returns: A Lake Mendota Mystery on Ice

Before ice season melts completely away on Madison’s lakes, we wanted to share some really cool photos that local ice angler, Jim Kusuda, took when he was fishing in 70 feet of water on Lake Mendota back in February. What, Kusuda, wanted to know, were all these “white worms” turning up in his fishing holes? …

Earlier Algae Blooms, Lingering Toxins: Invasive Species Cause Big Changes to a Lake’s Microbial Community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: A new study is highlighting the outsized impacts that invasive species can have – even on the tiniest residents in an ecosystem. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report maps out how two invasive species affected the microbial community of one Wisconsin lake and led …

Tiny Trout? Study Finds Several Freshwater Species Bucking One Climate Change Trend

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (MADISON, WI) by Adam Hinterthuer When it comes to predictions of how climate change will impact fish populations, a new study has found that several species are ‘swimming upstream’. “One widely expected result of global warming is that animal body size is going to go down,” says Olaf Jensen, an associate professor …