Even worse, these issues will contin-
ue to worsen in response to climate
Pollution Effects
on
Lake Mendota
Summer algae-blooms
L
ake Mendota, heart of the
UW-Madison campus, has a
long history of pollution that
continues to cause problems with
the watershed’s ecosystem, and
no one’s paying attention.
Well, not exactly no one.
As an emeritus professor of zoology at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and Director Emeritus of the Center
for Limnology, John J.
Magnuson, Ph.D., has “It’s important not to give up.”
spent much of his pro-
fessional career pushing the agenda of
ecological issues upon groups and or-
ganizations that are capable of causing
change.
“I’ve always been fond of water,”
Magnuson said when asked about his
motives to become a zoology professor.
“As a kid I was always in the streams by
our house, throwing rocks and catch-
ing fish.”
Though there were many reasons
behind his interest in ecology and
zoology, Magnuson noted that it was
Lloyd L. Smith Jr., a zoologist professor
at the University of Minnesota, that
Photo: Lars Plougmann
inspired him the most. From Minneso-
ta, he would continue on to study big
commercial fisheries at the University
of British Colombia, followed by a job
in Honolulu studying tuna while work-
ing in blue water oceanography.
Eventually wanting to return to the
Midwest where he grew up, Magnuson
arrived at UW-Madison, greeted by a
beautiful lake with an ugly problem.
Mendota’s issues are caused by eutro-
phication, which is an over-enrich-
ment of nutrients like phosphorus,
nitrate, and chloride that enter the
lake through run-off. According to
Magnuson, this process results in the
spawn of harmful cyanobacteria, better
known as “blue-green algae,” which
can cause the death of many native
plants and animals.
change.
“Runoff is increased during heavy
rainfall, which results in an overload of
nutrients getting dumped in the lake as
farm fertilizers are washed from fields,”
said Magnuson. “The frequency of
heavy rainfalls increases with climate
change.”
Calling for public action, Magnuson
says that the situation is and has been
urgent. In one of his published articles
(Long-Term Ecological Research and
the Invisible Present), he coins the
phrase “invisible present,” which is the
“time scale within which our respon-
sibilities for earth are most evident.” It
makes note of the ecosystem changes
that occur in our lifetimes, as well as
the ones in our children’s and grand-
children’s.
Solving these issues has been a work in
progress for quite some time, with the
Clean Lakes Alliance (CLA) leading
the charge. Working alongside the
USGS and DNR among other parties,
the CLA uses data from research col-
lected by these organizations to devel-
op possible solutions.
While it’s going to take
time to enable these solutions, it starts
with our Madison community giving
Lake Mendota the attention it de-
serves. Magnuson says that continuing
the conversation on these issues and
spreading awareness are both crucial
to keeping this topic relevant.
“It’s important not to give up,” said
Magnuson.