Miskwagami-wizaga-iganing

Miskwagami-wizaga-iganing. Ojibwe, translation–Red Lake. , Tradition holds that Red Lake was named after its beautiful red sunsets. The name first appeared on a 1755 map as "Lac Rouge," (French, translation–Red Lake.), The great glaciers that covered Minnesota melted, first in the south, then in the north. Western Minnesota's Continental Divide didn't allow the meltwater to flow south, through Glacial River Warren that carved the valley for the present day Minnesota River. The great sheets of glacial ice in the north prevented drainage up to Hudson Bay. Over the centuries, large quantities of meltwater pooled forming Glacial Lake Agassiz in northwestern Minnesota and Canada. This glacial lake covered an area larger than the Great Lakes (about 123,500 square miles). Eventually, Glacial Lake Agassiz drained to the north as the ice retreated north of Winnipeg, Manitoba., Remnants of the great Glacial Lake Agassiz are seen today in northwestern Minnesota's lack of topography (otherwise known as flat). North and west of Red Lake there is less than 10 feet of elevation change throughout most of the old lake basin. This caused water to drain so slowly that the vast expanse of the Red Lake Peatland (Big Bog) began to form about 3,000 years ago. The Big Bog is the largest continuous expanse of peatland in the northern contiguous United States. Upper and Lower Red Lakes lie within the old Glacial Lake Agassiz lake bed, as do Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg, and Lake Manitoba., Aquatic Food Pyramid, Large, shallow lakes like Red Lake and Mille Lacs Lake are often among Minnesota's most productive fisheries. Phytoplankton (free-floating, photosynthetic aquatic algae) are the base of aquatic food pyramids and need sunlight to do the photosynthesis necessary for them to grow and reproduce. Here at Upper Red Lake, where the maximum depth is 15 feet, summer winds continually stir the shallow lake waters, mixing the sunlit upper water (photic zone) with the dark lower water (aphotic zone). This stirring of the water exposes most of the lake's phytoplankton to sunlight on a regular basis and allows Red Lake's phytoplankton to grow more aggressively than that of deeper lakes. A large phytoplankton population means abundant food for the next step up the pyramid: herbivorous (plant eating) fish and small aquatic animals (zooplankton). Abundant production at lower levels means the next pyramid level eats well and, in turn, yields abundant food for the next higher level. The eventual result of abundant food is high population levels of the larger fish, such as walleye and northern pike., Bulrushes, The bulrushes along the lakeshore here at the swimming beach are hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus) and three-square or chairmaker's rush (Scirpus pungeris). Bulrushes are important to the ecology of the lake shore for many reasons. The above ground vegetation protects the shore from heavy wave action while the roots stabilize the shoreline. Bulrushes attract marsh birds and songbirds, and are an important food source and nesting cover for waterfowl and muskrats. Beds of bulrushes are excellent fish habitat: in early spring, northern pike use them as spawning grounds; crappies, northerns and walleyes all use bulrushes as nursery beds., Algae Blooms, Do you ever wonder why your pond or lake seems to change to a green color in the fall? The answer is thermocline and algae bloom., In the fall, surface waters cool due to nighttime heat loss and less daytime solar warming. When the surface water temperature drops close to the water temperature of the lake or pond bottom, it takes little wind energy to mix the surface layer with the nutrient-rich, sunlight poor (aphotic) bottom level. During the fall turnover (or mixing), algae from the aphotic zone are stirred up to the sun-lit level and can now do photosynthesis, grow and reproduce. When their population is greater than normal, it is referred to as a "bloom" and is often seen as a color change in the water (especially green.) Here at Red Lake, we don't usually see a pronounced fall bloom because the growth of our algae is not limited by sunlight or nutrients due to the frequent mixing of the water in this large shallow lake., Thermocline, Turbidity is one sign of Red Lake's mixing. The constant stirring doesn't allow the suspended particles in the water to settle out to the lake bottom. Another indication of mixing is the lack of pronounced temperature differences between the surface and bottom waters during the summer. In deeper lakes, thermal layering (stratification), or thermocline, can be experienced by swimmers... colder water at the lake bottom and warmer, sun-heated water at the surface., Langmuir Currents, Ever notice the lines of foam on the lake surface on a windy day? They are the telltale streaks of Langmuir circulation., Wind and wave action create circular water movement - long tubes of circulating water - just under the water surface, and moving parallel to the surface. As this water circulates past the surface, it catches material and transports it. Adjoining cells rotate in opposite directions and the debris and foam collects where two cells meet., Seiche (pronounced "saysh"), Sometimes, strong winds blowing across Red Lake can last quite awhile. This can push water to the downward side of the lake and cause the water level to rise substantially. A seiche is the tide-like rise in water level caused by the wind. After the wind dies down, the water sloshes back and forth, sometimes for hours., To make your own seiches, try blowing on a bowl of soup. How long does it take the soup to stop sloshing back and forth?