University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: cisco

Fieldwork Photo Essay: Restoring a Food Web by Removing Invasive Fish, Adding Native Species

Trout Lake Station summer science communication intern, Maddie Gamble, spent time with the station’s pelagic food web crew. She put together this photo essay about their work. All words and pictures: Maddie Gamble (NOTE: All pictures show IRB-certified field technicians and researchers)

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 …

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? …

Is Tiny Find in Lake Mendota a Silver Lining for a Declining Species?

Earlier this summer, Alice Ogden-Nussbaum was checking on a gill net she had set a day earlier in Lake Mendota’s deepest waters. As she rolled the curtain of net up out of the lake, a remarkable, silver-scaled find surfaced – one that made Alice reach for her phone and excitedly text a photo to her …

Video: Past, Present and Future of Key Piece of the Great Lakes Food Web

by Moira Harrington, Wisconsin Sea Grant In a new video released today, Wisconsin Sea Grant illuminates the varied coregonines, a sudfamily of fish commonly known as cisco, which have pulsed through Great Lakes waters for 12,000 years. Due to human influences, the fork-tailed fish are diminished in number and range, and display less diverse forms. …

Can Manipulating “Mini Worlds” Give Native Fish a Boost?

by Cassie Gauthier – Each individual lake is like its own “mini world.” They all are unique in their shape, size, water depth, water temperature, and plant and animal composition. Often, the current conditions of a lake can tell the story of the lake’s past, and how it could look in the future. Each individual …