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 …
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 …
This Monday, March 18th, the Center for Limnology lost a dear friend. Eugene Thurston “Tug” Juday passed away at Grace Lodge in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, which is also the city where he was born. While Tug served in the South Pacific during World War II and raised a family in Illinois, he never really left the …
The water outside the window here at Hasler Lab is, well, hard. Sailboats are still stored for the winter and our pier is safely tucked away. But tomorrow is the first day of Spring and that got us here at the Center for Limnology thinking about field season, and that seemed as good a reason …
Gloomy Monday got you down? Here’s something to cheer you up. Last Friday, 3rd graders from Arbor Vitae-Woodruff came out to Trout Lake Station for Schoolyard LTER, an annual educational event putting limnological tools into kids’ hands. The results were, obviously, unbearably cute. Enjoy! Needless to say, we’re looking forward to next year’s Schoolyard and …
We don’t want to start a fuss over here at the CFL blog, but the unmistakable beeping of a big yellow machine hard at work drew our attention outside this afternoon. It turns out that we were, thankfully, getting some of our snowed-in parking spots cleared out. Unfortunately, the end result was a big pile …
Last summer, scientists at the CFL launched an ambitious attempt to eradicate invasive rainbow smelt from Crystal Lake in northern Wisconsin. Last weekend, Zach Lawson and Page Mieritz went up north to sample for smelt as researchers look to see what effect the experiment has had on the population. According to CFL director, Steve Carpenter, …
Sometimes it feels like limnology is an Internet afterthought and this blog is the lone oasis of freshwater science in a cyber wasteland. But then a few links surface from the deep and I realize that there’s actually a lot of cool freshwater science on the web if you just know where to look. …
When it comes to surface water pollution, people tend to think big. The focus is often on metropolitan sewer districts, large dairy operations, or sediment build-up behind giant dams. It turns out that small-scale dams used on farms to create things like livestock watering holes and irrigation ditches play just as important a role in …