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Research about Vilas, Wisconsin

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Vilas, Wisconsin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

A positive relationship between groundwater velocity and submersed macrophyte biomass in Sparkling Lake, Wisconsin

We measured groundwater velocity and submersed macrophyte biomass at 52 shal- low (0.4-6.6 m) sites in mesotrophic Sparkling Lake, Vilas County, Wisconsin, during May-Au- gust 1985. Seventeen percent of variation in macrophyte biomass was explained by a signifi- cant (P < 0.005) relation with depth [log(biomass + 1) = 0.49 depth - 0.08 (depth)2 + 0.121. Some of the remaining variation in macrophyte bio- mass was explained by a significant rank corre- lation of biomass-on-depth residuals with groundwater velocity (rs = 0.46, P < 0.0 1). These results suggest that water movement through the sediment-water interface may be a determinant of macrophyte abundance and distribution.

Wisconsin

Mercury accumulation in transplanted Hypogymnia physodes lichens downwind of Wisconsin chlor-alkali plant

Emissions of mercury from a chlor-alkali plant in central Wisconsin have raised concern about possible effects on biota in the area. Samples of the lichen Hypogymnia physodes, which no longer grows in the area, were transplanted from a site in northeastern Wisconsin and positioned on plastic stands at varying distances up to 1250 m from the plant and sampled for Hg quarterly for one year to test the hypothesis that Hg would be taken up by the lichens and would decline with distance. Average tissue concentrations were elevated when first sampled at three months and continued to increase at the nearest sites until the study ended after one year. Average concentrations after a year of exposure ranged from 4418 ppb at 250 m from the plant to 403 ppb at 1250 m from the plant. The decrease over distance followed a negative exponential pattern. Background concentrations at a control site in northern Wisconsin averaged 155 ppb.

Wisconsin