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 …
Lake Mendota
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 …
Fan Mail and A Few Thoughts About Science’s Role in Society
A few weeks ago, a letter arrived in our mailbox here at Hasler Lab from a reader of this blog. It was … not the most positive message. In fact, it stopped just short of …
Recent News A Stark Reminder That No Ice Is 100% Safe
Last Saturday, with temperatures hovering in the mid-teens, an experienced ice-angler died when his ATV broke through the ice on Lake Waubesa. A few days prior, a woman walking her dog fell through the ice …
Where Does Lake Mendota’s 2022 Christmas Freeze Fall in Historic Ice Records?
For fans of ice fishing, ice skating, cross-country skiing and just enjoying a winter walk, this holiday season was especially timely. One year ago today, Lake Mendota was still making waves and waiting on its …
January Freeze Dates Becoming the Norm for Madison Lakes
When Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin froze over a few days after New Year’s Eve, it marked the beginning of “ice season,” a time of year when (once the ice gets thick enough, of course) …
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 …
Clear Water? Yes. Green Scum? Also yes. What’s Going on Out There?
by Jake Vander Zanden — You may have noticed that, In the last week or so, the Madison lakes have been crystal clear, with visibility of up to 30 feet recorded in Lake Mendota by …
Study Finds Link Between Climate Change and Longer “Dead Zones” in Lakes
A new study in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences is linking climate change to yet another environmental impact – longer lasting “dead zones” In lakes. According to the study, warm summer weather is …
Study: Stories of Invasive Species Often Begin with Undetected “Sleeper Populations”
When an invasive species overruns an ecosystem, it is often assumed that the organism recently arrived at its new home and rapidly took over. But a report published in the journal, BioScience, says that many …