1. Introduction. - The origin of the lake. - The naming of the Madison lakes. - Ownership of Lake Mendota. - The regional setting. - 2. Physical Limnology. - Morphometry and Hydrography. - General Features of the Lake. - Hypsometry of Lake Mendota. - Climate of the Lake Mendota area. - Water budget of the lake. - Thermal structure and heat budget. - Water movement. - Summary. The four seasons in Lake Mendota. - 3. Chemistry and nutrient loading. - Chemistry of the lake water. - Nutrient loading studies. - Sediment composition and chemistry. - Recent sediments in Lake Mendota. - Oxygen in Lake Mendota. - Nitrogen in Lake Mendota. - Phosphorus in Lake Mendota. - Iron and manganese. - Sulfate. - Chloride. - Silica. - Inorganic carbon in Lake Mendota. - Summary. - 4. Phytoplankton. - Methodology for studying phytoplankton populations in Lake Mendota. - Annual cycles of phytoplankton. - Mean depth of chlorophyll. - Surface/volume ratios of phytoplankton cells. - Diatom blooms in Lake Mendota. - Blue-green algae of Lake Mendota. - Buoyancy of the blue-green algae of Lake Mendota. - Where do the algae go?. - Summary. - 5. Phytoplankton photosynthesis and primary production. - Methods. - Calculating whole lake productivity from incubator data. - Photosynthesis/light (P/I) relationship. - Photosynthetic efficiency of Lake Mendota phytoplankton 125. - Primary production in Lake Mendota. - A model for Lake Mendota production. - 6. Zooplankton. - Methods for studying Lake Mendota Zooplankton. - Species composition. - Zooplankton abundance. - Biomass of Zooplankton. - Conclusions. - 7. Bacteria carbon cycling and biogeochemical processes. - Methods. - Bacterial biomass and production in the water column. - The impact of Zooplankton feeding on bacteria. - Importance of bacterial attachment to particles. - A model for bacterioplankton growth and disappearance. - Significance of algal excretory products for epilimnetic bacteria. - Bacterial processes in the anaerobic deep-water sediments. - Sulfate reduction in Lake Mendota. - Conclusion. - 8. Higher Trophic Levels. - Bottom fauna. - Fish. - Summary. - 9. Long-term Change in Lake Mendota. - Chemistry and nutrient loading. - Oxygen in Lake Mendota. - Secchi transparency. - Phytoplankton. - Zooplankton. - Bacteria. - Fish. - Conclusion. - 10. Energy flow in the Lake Mendota ecosystem. - Appendix 1. Physical and chemical data. - Appendix 2. Phytoplankton data. Language: English