Lake Trout Habitat in Lake of the Woods
Update from Clare Nelligan, MSc candidate, Queen's University
Research supported in part by the Foundation, is underway aimed at understanding how multiple environmental stressors, such as nutrient enrichment and climate change, will affect habitat viability for lake trout by contributing to deepwater oxygen depletion in lakes.
Lake trout require deep cold water with high concentrations of dissolved oxygen. There are growing concerns that lake trout habitat is increasingly threatened as multiple environmental stressors, such as nutrient enrichment and climate change, contribute to deepwater oxygen depletion in lakes. Research supported in part by the Foundation, is underway aimed at understanding past conditions in Lake of the Woods (Echo Bay, Cul de Sac Bay and Whitefish Bay) and to forecast future habitat conditions for these lake trout populations. The work on Lake of the Woods is part of a province-wide project led by a collaboration of researchers from Queen's University, York University, the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Canada. Preliminary results were presented at the International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Forum earlier this spring.
The project is using microscopic fossils preserved in lake sediments to reconstruct how habitat conditions have changed through time on these bays that currently support lake trout. Fossilized algal and insect remains are being used to infer historical nutrient concentrations, deep-water oxygen conditions, and the recent influence of climate warming – factors that control the amount and quality of Lake Trout habitat. This information will be used to build models to predict future habitat quality under various nutrient and climate scenarios.
Algal fossils from the sediments of Cul de Sac, Echo, and Whitefish bays suggest that historically, nutrient inputs were low and that nutrient levels in these bays are likely decreasing somewhat. However, all three bays have experienced recent changes in the algal community that are characteristic of climate warming. Currently the research is focusing on how oxygen conditions have changed over the same time period and will explore what these changes may mean for the lake trout populations in the future. We are excited to share more of these results over the next year!
For more information please see the project website at Queen's University: http://post.queensu.ca/~pearl/laketrout/