For more than 100 years, the UW Center for Limnology’s Trout Lake Station has been researching lakes and streams, focusing mainly on Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region. Director of the station, Gretchen Gerrish, spoke to The Badger Herald about the importance of limnology and their station.

“Limnology is the focus of inland lakes and streams,” Gerrish said. “It’s a huge responsibility to understand those waters and help maintain them.”

The Trout Lake Station researches various aspects of inland waters, aiming to connect people with the landscapes they interact with, Gerrish said. Their work focuses on the similarities and differences between lakes, human interactions with these bodies of water, and challenges like climate change and runoff.

The effort and commitment of past scientists have positioned the Trout Lake Station for success, along with the significant research that has emerged from the station, Gerrish said.

 Gerrish explained that studies on trophic cascades and food web manipulations originated at Trout Lake, along with other significant research addressing broader, more pressing issues, such as the major concern of acid rain in the ’80s and ’90s.

“They divided it [lake] in half and acidified half of it, and then watched how long it took and what happened during the recovery phase,” Gerrish said.

Gerrish explained how each season the Station hosts anywhere from 10-20 projects — these projects can range from large long term studies, to community embedded research.

 The acid rain study led to hundreds of new publications, discourse in media and even a was referred to in front of Congress as part of the Clean Air and Clean Water Act, Gerrish said. 

For the Trout Lake Station, the goal has always been to share and spread knowledge, through both traditional research projects and smaller, more directed studies.