Advanced search

Katherine "Trina" McMahon

University of Wisconsin
3204 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Dr
Madison, WI 53706
tmcmahon@engr.wisc.edu
(608) 263-3137
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cee/faculty/mcmahon_katherine.html

Research Projects

North Temperate Lakes Microbial Observatory

Our primary goal in the Microbial Observatory is to advance the understanding of lake bacterioplankton, whose diversity and population dynamics are currently the least understood off all freshwater planktonic organisms. Through identification and characterization of predominant bacterial populations in a suite of strongly contrasting lakes, we will gain significant new insight into the ecological roles of bacteria in diverse freshwater ecosystems. Our research is structured to answer four key questions:

Heterotrophic Bacterial Community Patterns in Lake Mendota

Part of this research is about long-term heterotrophic bacterial community patterns in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. Heterotrophic bacteria are responsible for nutrient cycling in aquatic systems. These preliminary abundance data indicate seasonal patterns in bacterial taxa (OTU’s). We will perform time-series analysis with these data together with environmental variables (water chemistry and meteorological factors) in order to investigate drivers of the bacterial community ...

Linking Nutrient Cycling to Cyanobacterial Community Structure and Succession in Lakes

Lake Mendota is an eutrophic lake that harbors an abundant and diverse array of bloom-forming cyanobacteria (also called blue-green algae). The cyanobacterial community is highly variable, contains numerous nitrogen (N2) fixing and non-N2 fixing genera, and has multiple genotypes capable of forming ephemeral, and possibly toxic, blooms. Nutrients play an integral role in structuring the cyanobacterial community, but it is unclear how phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N), and trace metal limitation might influence seasonal to decadal community dynamics ...

Predicting Water Quality in Lake Mendota

Eutrophication of surface waters is of increasing concern worldwide, and is the most significant water quality issue in Lake Mendota, WI. Water quality in Lake Mendota, WI has implications for human health, aquatic organisms, and recreation.

more

Recent Publications

Read JS, Shade A, Wu CH, Gorzalski A, McMahon KD.  2011.  Gradual entrainment lake inverter (GELI): A novel device for experimental lake mixing. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. 9:14-28.
Newton RJ, McMahon KD.  2011.  Seasonal differences in bacterial community composition following nutrient additions in a eutrophic lake. Environmental Microbiology. 13:887-899.
Newton RJ, Jones SE, Eiler A, McMahon KD, Bertilsson S.  2011.  A guide to the natural history of freshwater lake bacteria . Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 75:14-49.
Hoover SW, II MWD, Brownson AK, Lennen RM, Wittkopp TM, Yoshitani J, Zulkifly S, Graham LE, Chaston S, McMahon KD et al..  2011.  Bacterial production of free fatty acids from freshwater macroalgal cellulose. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 91:435-446.
Shade A.  2010.  Aquatic bacteria, lakes, and water column overturn: a model microbial system for disturbance ecology.. Microbiology. Ph.D.:xiii,204.
more