Watershed Sustainability and Climate Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Series: The Yahara Watershed

The Yahara River is relatively short in length and small in volume, but it plays an outsized role in Wisconsin given its location and status as the subject of detailed scientific research. A tributary of the Rock River, which in turn flows into the Mississippi, the Yahara is defined by the chain of lakes that are home to Madison and its suburbs, which are growing rapidly. Dominated for many decades by agriculture, the watershed drained by the river is increasingly becoming urbanized as its population increases. The region's water faces challenges in terms of quality and quantity that development and climate change are intensifying over the long term. University of Wisconsin scientists have long studied the lakes and how the surrounding landscape affects their condition, establishing the watershed and Madison area as a model for better understanding interactions between cities and the natural world around them.
 
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Water quality in Madison's Lake Mendota is changing, and it turns out the sludge at the bottom of it can help explain why. Jake Walsh, a researcher who formerly studied the lake at the UW-Madison Center for Limnology, discusses what scientists are learning.
The vast majority of what happens under the surface of lakes goes unrecorded, meaning potentially important ecological stories are often lost to history.
Since funding, gear and time are limited, scientists often can only sample for invasive species over small fractions of vulnerable areas.
While efforts after August 2018 storms focused on cleaning up and limiting flooding, Madison will need to address its vulnerability to extreme rainfall if it wants to prepare for the future.
Phosphorus is a well-known culprit for water quality problems in Wisconsin, and an excess of this nutrient in soils impedes efforts to clean up lakes. Several groups of people play critical roles in reducing phosphorus pollution and improving lakes – farmers, policymakers and scientists, to name a few – but how does the "average" person fit in?
Phosphorus is one of the most important components in the ongoing struggle to balance agricultural prosperity with water quality. What scientists call "legacy phosphorus" — or "legacy P," a common abbreviation — exists in a sort of nutrient limbo.
City centers typically are hotter than suburbs, which in turn tend to be hotter than rural areas, controlling for other factors. The more developed and densely populated an area, the more buildings, asphalt and other solid surfaces amplify and absorb the heat of the sun, usually with fewer plants to help cool things down.
The condition of the natural world is inextricably bound with the choices humans make. "Built" environments and "wild" areas do not exist distinct from each other; rather, both interact through complex relationships.
One organism, exploding in population, thrives at the expense of others in its ecosystem. That's essentially what happens when a toxic algal bloom spreads a slimy, stinky trail across a body of water.