In late April of this year – on Earth Day, to be exact – Center for Limnology alumna, Lorna Petty Harrell passed away. Lorna earned her master’s degree in zoology in 1972 at what was then referred to as the Laboratory of Limnology. She was the first female graduate student in John Magnuson’s lab and …
by Sandra McLean, York University and Adam Hinterthuer, UW–Madison FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: – Most projections about the dangers of climate change focus on excessive heat as a pressing threat to human lives. But, according to a new study from an international team of researchers, the colder parts of the year are also becoming more deadly …
by Eric Hamilton, University Communications – For 166 years, observers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Wisconsin State Climatology Office have recorded a central aspect of life in the city — the dates when Lake Mendota freezes and thaws. Those dates mark the transition from fishing to ice fishing, from canoeing to snow shoeing. …
MADISON – In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, frozen lakes define the winter experience and create an indelible sense of place. From ice fishing and hockey to skating, skiing and snowmobiling, icy lakes enable communities to engage in activities that aren’t possible in warmer seasons or climates. But these iconic cold-weather past-times could become …
Note, post was originally published 11/28/16 and has been updated to include current conditions. After a rather balmy Thanksgiving, where nighttime lows still hovered above freezing, our forecast calls for highs in the 30s (Fahrenheit) and lows in the 20s this week, which means it’s the time of year when we try to do the impossible …
On Saturday, April 21st, Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium welcomed 9,256 visitors to its sprawling campus along Lake Michigan’s shoreline. 1225 of the youngest visitors grabbed “passports” to learn more about the migratory fishes on display for World Fish Migration Day. 4, 824 watched a video about fish migrations as they waited in line for the 4-D …
NOTE: This post originally ran on January 17, 2012. In the four of the five years since this post, Lake Mendota has frozen over well after its “median” freeze date, and in three of the five years it has thawed much earlier. A few days before Christmas, I was headed down John Nolen Drive on …
by Andy Stevens If you’ve taken an evening stroll anywhere along the shore of Lake Mendota over the last week or so, you will likely have noticed large schools of translucent, pencil-like minnows darting about and jumping at the surface. These fish are a species called the brook silverside – Wisconsin’s only member of the …
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MADISON, WI — In 1442, fifty years before Columbus “sailed the ocean blue,” Shinto priests in Japan began keeping records of the annual freeze dates of a nearby lake. Along a Finnish river, starting in 1693, local merchants recorded the date the ice broke up each spring. These two observations are the …
Field Samples is a Q&A with aquatic researchers. Today the incomparable John Magnuson talks about research on how fish find their niche. John will give a public lecture today at noon in the Water Science & Engineering Lab as part of the Center for Limnology’s weekly Wednesday seminar. Who are you, where are you from, and …