On a clear, sunny afternoon this September, two of Trout Lake Station’s green-hued jon boats were out on Sparkling Lake, just off of highway 51. For CFL faculty member, Emily Stanley, and grad student, Luke Loken, it was like a lot of other days at the office. For Scott Ensign, however, the outing was the …
Field Samples is a Q&A with presenters at our weekly Wednesday seminar. Today CFL grad student, Samantha Oliver, will talk about how humans changes to the landscape have drastically altered nutrient flows into lakes. Who are you, where are you from, and how did you get here? I’m Samantha Oliver, and I’m originally from …
Do not underestimate the babbling brook. When it comes to greenhouse gases, these bucolic water bodies have the potential to create a lot of hot air. According to a new analysis in the journal Ecological Monographs, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues, the world’s rivers and streams pump about 10 times more …
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 just 12.5% …
Originally Published October, 2014 – Earlier this month, anyone down on the shores of Madison’s lakes may have noticed the water tinged the green hue of an algae bloom, something we normally associate with the warmer summer months. But a final fall bloom isn’t all that unusual – It just means that the lakes are, literally, …
by Nora Casson What makes a group of limnologists head into the woods in the dead of winter? In the case of the students and post-docs in Emily Stanley’s lab, it was a need to embrace cabin fever, shut ourselves in and get a lot of work done. A few weeks ago, eight of us …
Limnologists aren’t always out in boats on calm, sunny days. (But sometimes we are!) While fieldwork is an essential part of collecting data, it’s often not the only step needed to turn that information into something we can use to start answering research questions. Luke Loken is a Center for Limnology grad student in Emily …
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 …
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 …
All summer long, Trout Lake Station outreach assistant, Ali Branscombe will be bringing you stories from the field. Join Ali as she follows researchers slogging through wetlands, boarding boats, and wrangling fish, bringing you – Limnology in Action. It is a cold morning with scattered showers and random peeks of sunshine between the dark clouds. …