University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: NTL LTER

Learn Your Lakes! Introducing a Mobile Scavenger Hunt for Our LTER Study Sites

We get it – ice fishing (or even ice boating) isn’t for everyone. If this current polar vortex has you staying warm indoors, have we got a cool new thing for you! Now you can visit (and learn about) our lakes year-round from the comfort of your own smartphone screen. (And, once spring arrives, you …

Life On the Edge (and Under the Surface) In Lodi, Wisconsin

by Madelyn Anderson –Have you ever wondered what happens to a lake when the water rises? Aquatic plants, lake sediment, fish communities and more can be affected and, here at Hasler Lab, we’re uncovering how.  Last summer we introduced you to Cassie Ceballos, a PhD candidate investigating the ecological impacts of rising water levels at …

Unthreading the Mussel Mystery: Part 3

We’re back with CFL postdoc Tyler Butts and his team as they explore how invasive species interact with eutrophic lakes. As you may have noticed, they are a dedicated crew! by Madelyn Anderson – When I first met undergraduate invasive species technician Joey Munoz, he had a pile of live zebra mussels in front of him …

Beneath the Surface, Long-Term Lake Monitoring Reveals the Drama of a Food Web in Flux

Seen from shore, it doesn’t look like a lot is going on in Trout Lake in northern Wisconsin. Aside from windy days that shove waves against its mostly wooded shoreline, the lake presents, more often than not, a smooth, picturesque surface of crystal-clear water. But, peer beneath the surface or, more accurately, dig through decades’ …

Socially Distant Science: How COVID Complicated Summer 2020 Research

This article first appeared in our 2020 Annual Newsletter. Earlier this summer, Ted Bier was out on Lake Monona with the Madison skyline bobbing in the background collecting samples for the North Temperate Lakes (NTL) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. It was Bier’s 18th year with the NTL-LTER but, like most things in 2020, …

Fishes of Wisconsin: School’s in Session for Brook Silversides

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 …

LTEArts Goes to Washington: Exploring the Beauty of Science on Wisconsin Lakes

In 2011, researchers at the Center for Limnology’s Northern Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research project teamed up with artists in Wisconsin’s Northwoods to explore a new way of communicating science. They all asked the same question – what happens when six artists and six scientists join in exploring the complexity, beauty and future of …