Plankton Measurements from Seven North Temperate Lakes

Planktonic data includes chlorophyll a, phytoplankton primary production, and zooplankton species abundance from seven primary study lakes in Wisconsin. Measurements are conducted concurrently with physical and chemical limnology studies by the North Temperate Lakes LTER site, affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Limnology. The data supports long-term ecological research in a region with one of the world's highest concentrations of lakes.

Use Cases

• Model chlorophyll a concentration as a function of lake depth and season using spectrophotometric measurements from 2 to 10 depths.
• Analyze zooplankton species abundance trends over time using integrated volumetric estimates of organisms per liter from Schindler trap and net tow samples.
• Correlate phytoplankton primary production from C14 incubation data with physical and chemical parameters measured in Crystal, Sparkling, and Trout lakes.
• Study community structure by analyzing archived phytoplankton samples preserved in Lugol's and zooplankton samples preserved in buffered formalin.
• Utilize derived datasets of epilimnetic and hypsometrically weighted averages for chlorophyll a and phaeopigment concentrations in comparative analyses.

Strengths

• Data collected from seven primary lakes representing a range of sizes, depths, and fertility conditions.
• Measurements are integrated with concurrent physical and chemical limnology databases (NTL001, NTL002) for holistic analysis.
• Derived datasets provide pre-calculated epilimnetic and depth-weighted averages for key pigments.

Limitations

• Primary production measurements are limited to only three of the seven lakes (Crystal, Sparkling, Trout).
• Specific sample sizes, row counts, and temporal coverage ranges are not provided in the description.
• Geographic scope is focused on a single protected district in Wisconsin, limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, North Temperate Lakes (NTL) site, Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Collection Method

Field sampling: chlorophyll collected at multiple depths and analyzed spectrophotometrically; primary production measured via C14 laboratory incubation; zooplankton collected with Schindler Patalas trap and Wisconsin net tows, preserved and archived.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Northern Highland Lakes District of Wisconsin, USA, area approximately 10,000 sq km.