University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: regime shift

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’ …

Early Warning Indicators Predict Ecological “Cliff”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Day after day, the buoy bobbed at the surface of Peter Lake. Every five minutes, 288 times a day, instruments in the water silently recorded samples without creating so much as a ripple. But, beneath the surface, Peter Lake was in turmoil. The buoy was busy documenting massive change. In a new …