Hannah Hoag

Tag: Experimental Lakes Area

  • Glimmer of hope for freshwater research site

    Glimmer of hope for freshwater research site

    This story was originally posted on the Nature News Blog. 

    The government of Ontario, Canada, has stepped in to keep open the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA). The freshwater research facility, located in northern Ontario, was closed in March by the government of Canada, despite protests from scientists.

    Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne announced today that the government of Ontario will provide support to keep the ELA running this year and in the future, as it works to transfer the facility to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a United Nations think tank based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

    “We have had many conversations with members of the public and our scientific and academic communities who want to see the Experimental Lakes Area stay open,” Wynne said in a statement. But the statement did not elaborate on how much money the government has designated for operations, whether the facility will be fully operational this summer or the fate of the long-term climate data set the facility has kept up for 45 years. Meanwhile, the federal government released its own statement today noting that it “has been leading negotiations with third parties”.

    “We remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached and we welcome Ontario’s willingness to play an active role,” reads the statement from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

    Many university scientists say that they are still not sure whether they will be able to continue their experimental work this summer. Several are sceptical that negotiations will be wrapped up in time for experiments to proceed as planned. “It’s somewhat exciting news, but quite frankly I don’t know what it means for us yet,” says Maggie Xenopoulos, an aquatic biologist at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. Xenopoulos and her colleagues had planned to contaminate one of ELA’s lakes with nanosilver this summer and measure its ecological impact.

    A statement from the IISD’s leader offered few specifics about its potential deal with the government of Ontario. “If the ELA does come to IISD, we would work with other stakeholders to ensure it remains an independent, world-class research facility that continues to produce leading-edge freshwater ecosystems science in the public domain and in the public interest,” said Scott Vaughan, the institute’s president and chief executive.

    Vincent St. Louis, a biogeochemist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, says that the plan “is a good first start”. The plan to close the lake area “has always been baffling from a scientific perspective, given how much it provides at such a low cost,” says St. Louis, who has studied acid rain, reservoir creation and mercury emissions at the ELA — and would like to see scientists use the facility to study the impact of chemicals found in oil sands tailing ponds, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, on aquatic biota.

    The federal government announced last May that it would stop funding the facility, which cost about Can$2 million (US$2 million) to operate, and that it would begin a search for a new operator. Federal funding dried up on 31 March, and university scientists who had planned experiments for the summer field season were told that they were not allowed on the site.

  • Test lakes face closure

    Test lakes face closure

    Lake 239 looks inviting. Pines and spruce fringe the shoreline and waves lap against outcrops of weathered granite. But on this hot August afternoon in northwestern Ontario (see ‘Water works’), one feature stands out. At the far end of the 800-metre-long lake, a series of plastic-walled columns descend from a floating dock to the muddy bottom about 2 metres down. They are the sign that the lake’s placid setting disguises an experiment in controlled environmental abuse.

    Jennifer Vincent, a graduate student at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, kneels by one of the columns and empties a vial of silver nanoparticles into it. An iridescent purple cloud blooms in the water for a moment before the metal particles are mixed and disperse. These experiments are the first stage of a three-year, Can$720,000 (US$728,000) project to understand the biological effects of ‘nanosilver’ — an antibacterial agent commonly added to commercial products — and its possible effect on the environment. Previous work has shown that the chemical alters bacterial-community structure, affects algae and may change phosphorus cycling. Next year, the project intends to add nanosilver to an entire lake (Lake 222) and measure its effects across the ecosystem.

    With 58 such lakes serving as sites for a broad range of studies, the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) is unique in the world. “I don’t take it lightly that you’re basically poisoning a lake,” says Chris Metcalfe, an environmental toxicologist from Trent University, and a leader on the project. But at the ELA, he adds, “you can graphically demonstrate what goes on in a whole lake ecosystem.”

    Yet the ELA project, with its laboratory buildings, residences and workshops, may soon disappear. Earlier this year, Canada announced that it would cease funding the ELA after March 2013, a development that dismayed scientists who have made use of the 44-year-old facility for investigations ranging from chemical contamination to the effects of climate change.

    The decision was unexpected. On 17 May, ELA employees at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, were called to an emergency meeting, where they were told that the government was no longer interested in experiments requiring whole-lake manipulation. The 17 ELA staff at the institute, including four scientists, who are employed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), were told that their positions will be axed as of April 2013. (more…)

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    Nature 488, 437–438

    Published 21 August 2012