Wednesday, June 10, 2009

June 10 - Evidence of cyanobacteria dying



It looks like someone spilled blue-green, blue, and amber paint in some of the quiet coves around the Thompson Lake boat landing. However, this is actually evidence of death of some of the cyanotbacteria (see April 28 post) that has been blooming since April (blue-green and blue pigments) and duckweek (amber bleached-out very small floating plants). Lakes go through a lot of changes in a year, especially if they are going through the transitions involved in restoration.

Our Summer Interns - from France!


Say hello to Charlotte (right) and Delphine (left), our summer interns from Montpellier SupAgro (an International Center for Higher Education in Agricultural Sciences). They will be staying at the Emiquon Field Station and doing several projects with The Nature Conservancy and lending me a hand sampling and processing water/DNA samples.

May 29


Well, I have some catching up to do. It's been a really busy spring-summer.

I'll start with a picture from a few weeks ago. Our field station became full of activity when 17 archeologists (professor and students) from Michigan State University moved in at the end of May. To celebrate and welcome all, we threw a picnic for them and invited folks from The Nature Conservancy, Dickson Mounds Museum, and the Univ. of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). After, we spent time on Thompson Lake and UIS Provost Harry Berman and his wife, Deb, canoed the lake and captured some excellent pelican pictures. I am posting one (with permission).