August 23, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Water clarity showed a slight improvement over the last three sampling events.  The temperature of the lake today was in the low 70's.  With lower temperatures, and less day light algae should reduce in number and bring clearer water into the fall.  I'll be sampling phosphorus, and observing water clarity into the fall this year.  

Secchi disk hit bottom and was still visible at the Fox River inlet

August 6, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

Today the in-lake average was 0.9 ft. nearly the same for the last month.  The usual summer pattern continues.

Lake District Installing Living Fish Hatcheries

The Lake Puckaway Protection and Rehabilitation District if fighting the loss of important bluegill, yellow perch spawning habitat by planting emergent bulrush species and creeping spikerush.  Shortly after ice out these areas will become a living fish hatchery as yellow perch lay their eggs among the stems, and northern pike attach their eggs to the stems. Late in spring male bluegills, and pumpkinseeds will make and defend shallow nests where females will lay their eggs.  Come fall the living fish hatchery will be visited by mallards, teal, coots and many other species of waterfowl as they relish the seeds dropped by the bulrush plants.

Last planting completed August 5th! More information coming soon.

July 17, 2012 Water Monitoring Report

At the Fox River Inlet the Secchi disk was visible while sitting on the bottom,
so true clarity could not be determined.

 Out of concern for oxygen and temperature levels during the recent fish kill, today I expanded water quality monitoring and reporting to include dissolved oxygen (D.O.) at each station.  I also did temperature and D.O. profiles to see how these factors change with depth.  While conditions are not as extreme as before they are a good indicator of how the lake responds to high temperatures.

Temperature depth profiles in the East and West Basin show that, as expected temperature does not change significantly with depth as with nearly all shallow lakes and reservoirs  Slightly higher temperatures in the West Basin were because they were taken slightly later in the day. 

D.O. concentrations at 1.5 feet were very good throughout the sample sites.  The D.O. depth profile however indicates how fast D.O levels begin to drop off in deeper water.  The primary reason for this is low water clarity.  As over abundant algae get mixed in the water column down below were little light penetrates they stop producing surplus oxygen, and begin extracting it from the water, just like the fish, invertebrates and zooplankton surrounding them.  Also the deeper the water, the further it is from the surface where oxygen can be exchanged with the atmosphere.  Still D.O. levels at the bottom are not harmful to fish, but oxygen is becoming limited.   Conversely he Fox River Deep Hole upsteam of Puckaway had a clarity of 7.75 feet and had a D.O. of 7.38 mg/L at 1.5 ft and 7.52 mg/L at 7 feet.  Clearer water has less algae.

An important note on D.O.:  After the sun goes done all algae and aquatic plants begin using oxygen found in the water.  If they are over abundant D.O. levels can sometimes become dangerously low.  D.O. levels have not been tested at night.  

D.O. at a depth of 1.5 feet

Clarity today hit a new low since monitoring began with only 6 inches of clarity exiting Lake Puckaway, while the lake took in 93 inches of clear water from the Fox River.  In other words the lake made the water 15.5 times less clear. 

Right to Left: Water as it moves The Fox River into Lake Puckaway and out again.
Stations match up with water clarity graph at top of post.

How LOW is it?

I thought I would take a look at historical water levels to just how low the water is currently on Lake Puckaway.  Daily water levels for Puckaway do not currently exist and any historical records are not at my fingertips.  Since Puckaway is just a natural widening of the Fox River, given a healthy boost by the Princeton Dam, numbers from the Fox River at Berlin should give us an idea of historical significance of current conditions.  Gauge height readings are not easily available for a long period at Berlin, but flow in cubic feet per second, is available on the USGS website going back to 1898. A long time.  I looked at July 12th's in history.  

The average daily flow is about 970 cubic ft/sec.  The lowest ever recorded flow for the Fox River at Berlin was 328 cubic ft/sec in 1988 the second lowest flow was 382 in 2012.  So for all the droughts since 1898, including the dust bowl years, the second lowest flow for July 12 was this Thursday.  We are about 61% below normal in flow.  It is impossible to prepare for such an event with the Princeton Dam, even if we knew it was coming.

July 8 2012 Water Clarity and Field Report

For more than a week extreme weather conditions have fueled algal growth.  I'm starting to sound like a broken record.  Lake Puckaway is certainly not alone, dozens of other lakes in Wisconsin are experiencing the same thing.  The weather and its complications have stressed fish too.  I'm waiting to hear more from the DNR on that situation.

July 2, 2012 Water Clarity and Field Report

Hot, Hot, Hot.  This string of 90 degree days doesn't seem to let up.  Water temperature today was bathwater, 84-86 degrees.   This weather is feeding algae blooms, which is now beginning to negativity affect submerged plants in many parts of the lake, by shading and smothering them.  Emergent, and floating leaf plants, almost all of which are now above water continue to look healthy.   The Fox River is relatively clear, but has covering of watermeal.  Water meal looks like green cornmeal, and is actually the worlds smallest flowering plant, not an alga.  

Watermeal (Wolfia sp.) floating down the Fox River

Princeton Lock: Top - May 10, Bottom July 2, 2012
What a difference 53 days makes