nPostednon February 2, 2015
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nOnenthing is for sure – our birthday boy, François-AlphonsenForel, did NOT grow up hoping to become a limnologist. As a matter ofnfact, when he was growing up, there was no such thing as limnology! n
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nBecausenthis Swiss scientist, born on this date in 1841, grew up to inventnlimnology!
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nInbet you’ve never heard of this science before, but it’s simply thenstudy of lakes.
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| Lake Geneva |
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nForelnwas born and raised in a town on the shores of Lake Geneva. He worked as anprofessor of medicine at a university on that same lake. I imagine henwas good at his job…
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nButnwhat he really loved was the lake!
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nSonhe ended up investigating the biology of the lake. The chemistry ofnthe lake. The circulation of water in the lake, and the sedimentationn(how particles of dirt and sand that are suspended in water settle tonthe lake bottom) of the lake. Most important, having studied allnsorts of physical and life science aspects to the lake, the studiednthe interrelation of all these things. How did water circulationnaffect living creatures? How did circulation affect the chemistry ofnthe lake, and the sedimentation process? Forel studied these and manynother relationships between living and non-living parts of a lakenenvironment.
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| Lake Superior, arguably the largest lake in the world. |
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nHendiscovered that there were currents of water with different densitynin Lake Geneva (and, it turns out, all lakes). Sometimes water hasndifferent density because it has different temperatures—in othernwords, cold water flowing into a lake from an ice pack is more densenthan the warmer water already in the lake.
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nForelnalso discovered and named seiches, the standing waves that typicallynoccur in lakes and other enclosed or partially enclosed bodies ofnwater.
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| This is one of my favorite lakes, Crater Lake in Oregon. |
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nFinally,nForel developed the Forel-Ule scale (with another scientist) tonevaluated the color of a lake or other body of water. Above is Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. I think it has some of the most beautiful colored water I’ve ever seen!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nImbolcnin Celtic cultures
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GroundhognDay
GroundhognDay n
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nnGroundhognJob Shadow Day
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nMarmotnDay in Alaska
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nHedgehognDay
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nCandlemas
nCandlemas
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nIcenCream for Breakfast Day
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World Play Your Ukulele Day
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World Play Your Ukulele Day
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nPlannahead:
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nFebruaryn holidays
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nFebruaryn birthdays
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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