University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: zebra mussels

Summer Fellow Recap: Kayla Bain

Back in April, 109 donors (and some generous matching grants) helped us raise $32,240 dollars during the UW-Madison’s annual “Day of the Badger” fundraising campaign. Every dollar went to our Student Support Fund and gave a group of amazing undergraduates summer fellowships. We wanted to share what your support meant to our students. Here’s what UW-Madison …

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 …

Unthreading the Mussel Mystery: Part 1

This is first post in a series exploring a CFL project that hopes to shed new light on a familiar invasive species. by Madelyn Anderson – “D” shaped shells, light and dark stripes, sticky byssal threads. These are all characteristics of zebra mussels, an invasive aquatic species. Only around an inch long, these little creatures …

Guest Post: An Invasive Species and An Education on An Ever-Changing Lake

by Julia Buskirk – In 2015, Petra Wakker began her college experience alongside Lake Mendota. She was no stranger to this waterway—before walking alongside the lake on her way to classes at UW-Madison, Wakker had already been working at the Center for Limnology for two years. “I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want …

Water We Talking About? A 12-Year-Old Makes a Video About Mussels

Happy Friday! It’s time again for Water We Talking About – when kids send us freshwater-related questions and we track down real-life scientists to answer them. This week, though, Madeline from Madison threw us a curve ball – she didn’t send a question, she sent a video full of all sorts of facts about zebra …

Do “Piggyback Rides” Play an Important Role in Invasive Species Dispersal?

by Neil Coughlan and Andy Stevens Late one night, Andy Stevens, then a Center for Limnology graduate student, pulled a minnow trap out of the water off of the Hasler Lab pier in Lake Mendota. In the glare of his flashlight, Stevens could see the already familiar clusters of zebra mussels colonizing the wire mesh …

It’s a Jungle Down There: Zebra Mussels Transforming Depths of Lake Mendota

by Mike Spear In September 2015, a single zebra mussel about the size of a fingernail sent alarm through the Center for Limnology. (CFL). It signaled the arrival of one of the world’s most notorious invasive species in our own Lake Mendota, and it was big news. Today, zebra mussels carpet the rocky bottom of …

Thinking Big About Invasive Species: Q&A with Jake Vander Zanden

A recent study in the journal, Ecosystems, says that, when it comes to invasive species, it’s time to think bigger. While the movement of species from their native ranges to exotic lands is a major component of global ecosystem change, the authors contend, too often the scientific study of these invasive species is, well, local. …