Frequently Asked Questions: Research

For questions about research currently being conducted at IISD-ELA, or if you would like to discuss potential research topics for the site, contact Vince Palace, Head Research Scientist, at vpalace@iisd-ela.org.

You can also take a look at our research and data in the Researchers section of this website.

IISD Experimental Lakes Area is the world’s freshwater laboratory—a natural research laboratory made up of 58 small lakes and their watersheds.

As one of the world’s most influential freshwater research facilities, we conduct experiments on real lakes and ecosystems—one of the only places in the world you can do this.

Over the last 5 decades, we have conducted research projects to explore the impacts of—and solutions to—algal blooms, climate change, agricultural runoff, contaminants such as mercury and estrogen, oil spills, and a growing list of threats to freshwater supplies.

We are located on Treaty 3 territory, the traditional land of the Anishinaabe Nation and the homeland of the Métis Nation. This land is in a sparsely populated area of northwestern Ontario in Canada, approximately 300 km east of Winnipeg, Manitoba and 100 km west of Dryden, Ontario.

IISD Experimental Lakes Area was originally created as a response to the growing concern surrounding algal blooms on the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Erie. In 1966, the Freshwater Institute was established in Winnipeg by the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. They appointed J.R. (Jack) Vallentyne as Director and W.E. (Wally) Johnson as Head Scientist to address the problem of eutrophication. In 2006, two new staff and student residences were constructed on-site and were named after the founding scientists, Vallentyne and Johnson.

In partnership with the governments of Canada and Ontario, a section of land and water was designated as the Experimental Lakes Area. The Experimental Lakes Area officially opened in 1968 with David Schindler as Leader of Experimental Lake Investigations, a position he held until 1989.

In 1991, Dr. Schindler was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize, the highest award in limnological research, for research into excess nutrification and acidification of freshwater lakes. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten Dr. Schindler in our growing list of named residences! The Schindler cabin is a small, off-grid cabin on the north shore of Lake 239, only a short canoe trip away from camp.

In 2014, the International Institute for Sustainable Development assumed control over the Experimental Lakes Area from the Government of Canada under three new agreements to ensure the facility’s long-term operation. IISD Experimental Lakes Area celebrated 50 years of groundbreaking scientific research in 2018.

• Take a look at our ELA 50 Then and Now photo essay to see how we did science then and how we do science now!
• Click here to see a timeline of IISD-ELA’s history.

The IISD Experimental Lakes Area research facility is located down a 30-km beautiful and bumpy gravel road. As you enter the camp, first you will see our workshop where our facilities manager works to keep our motorized equipment in working order. Next, you will see the fish laboratory and the chemistry laboratory. The chemistry laboratory building also provides space for offices and laboratory benches to house visiting researchers and the Hydro-limnology, Toxicology, Zooplankton, and Education and Outreach teams. On the other side of camp, Hungry Hall serves as both a dining hall and group use area for seminars, meetings, and just plain old relaxing. Surrounding Hungry Hall and the laboratories are several residences for staff, students, and visitors, including the Vallentyne and Johnson Residences. The site also has smaller cabin-like residences for scientists with families in the part of camp we fondly call Suburbia. All together, we can comfortably accommodate about 55 people.

Click here to go on a virtual fly-over of IISD-ELA’s research facility!

Or, click here to view camp from Artist in Residence, James Culleton’s point of view.

The IISD Experimental Lakes Area research facility is located on the shores of two of 58 experimental lakes, Lakes 239 and 240. These are two significant lakes, as Lake 239 serves as a Long-Term Ecological Research lake (see FAQ #4), and Lake 240 serves as a reference lake for our ongoing METAALICUS study.

• Watch our very own Ken Sandiland’s video for more information on the Met Site!
• Take a look at scientist Ken Sandiland’s blog post on why our lakes have numbers instead of names.

After working hours, families, staff, and students relax at the beach on the shore of Lake 239, enjoy the beach volleyball court, canoe, and prepare for the annual talent show, Variety Night, at the end of the season.

Even in winter, the science doesn’t stop! Our facility manager lives at camp year-round, and our scientists visit monthly to perform winter sampling tasks, such as collecting temperature data or flow data. And, if we didn’t already collect enough data, each morning, an individual at camp will collect data and perform maintenance tasks at the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network meteorological site. This station was established in 1969 by the federal government and has been voluntarily run by IISD-ELA staff ever since.

Additionally, our Education and Outreach Team just completed their very first annual winter field course in early 2020.

IISD-ELA conducts whole-ecosystem experiments on entire lakes in the boreal forest. Using both physical (reservoirs and dams) and chemical (algal blooms, acid rain, hormones, mercury, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics) manipulations, scientists can gain a greater understanding of how historical and current issues are affecting freshwater ecology.

A team of scientists with Ph.D. and masters degrees, as well as undergraduate students, perform the science at IISD Experimental Lakes Area. They are supported by a Board of Directors, the Education and Outreach team, and the Operations team, which includes an on-site chef. Click here to learn more about who we are.

In addition to individual projects, we also use long-term monitoring techniques in our Long-Term Ecological Research program. This program uses five lakes to monitor chemical and physical properties, including but not limited to temperature, chlorophyll, turbidity, and oxygen level. Our science has had major impacts around the world, from influencing policy on mercury emissions to reducing phosphorous use in detergents.

Click here to discover what we are currently working on, and click here to read our strategic plan for 2023-2028.

Fresh water supports all life on earth. Without water, we would not have the world we have today. Can you think of a time you forgot to water your garden or house plants? Without a drink, plants become droopy, brown, and will die if left long enough.

Humans also depend on freshwater resources for survival and personal wellness. Freshwater lakes and streams are often important sources of food. Humans cannot drink salt water, so the fresh water held in groundwater, lakes, streams, and ice are all we have.

Human cultures across the world build water into their value systems. Lakes may be areas of inspiration and sustenance, while springs offer space for gathering, and rivers serve as connections between different ecosystems.

Research has shown that human actions—through things like water and air pollution, climate change, and habitat modification—can negatively impact the quality of water and the health of ecosystems. Changes to lakes and streams have the potential to harm the organisms that depend on that water resource for a home, for food, as a water source, and for personal or cultural wellness.

By understanding factors like algal blooms and acid rain, we can start to understand how fresh water is at risk and what we can do to help it.

Read more about fresh water here.

Answering this question can be challenging because the actual definition of a lake varies. The basic definition of a lake is that it is a large, inland waterbody with slow-moving water.

Lakes form in diverse ways, range in depth and shape, differ in water chemistry, and interact with the surrounding landscape in different ways. Because of these variations, more specific definitions of lakes will differ depending on where you are in the world.

An individual person’s knowledge of water bodies will also shape how they define and identify lakes. While one person may recognize a lake as an area for recreation, someone else may think about how a lake supports survival, and still another may identify lakes by their spiritual characteristics.

The great variability in lakes means that individual lake ecosystems vary and are unique. At IISD-ELA, we research lakes in the boreal ecozone of Canada. Boreal lakes are known to be cold, deep, and seasonal, and have cold-loving fish, like lake trout.

Click here to learn more about what a lake is.

At IISD Experimental Lakes Area, the health and safety of our staff and local community are our first priority.

First, all our staff and students hold a variety of certifications (first aid, WHMIS, Transportation of Dangerous Goods, ATV, UTV, and snowmobile operation, chainsaw operation) and receive extensive safety-related training on site related to the various hazards they may encounter (including things like weather, safe lifting/carrying, wildlife/microbes, working in/on/around water, etc.).   We aim to foster a culture of safety on site, and take all safety concerns seriously, large and small.  Each new project comes with its own safety considerations, so we regularly add to our suite of safety protocols and equipment.

When designing and approving experiments that are to be conducted in one of the 58 lakes—which were initially selected for their remoteness and distance from human activity—we require the manipulation and its effects to be contained within the lakes themselves, and carefully monitor water downstream to ensure that the containment is successful.

Moreover, each manipulation must be ‘environmentally relevant’. That is to say, the amounts of a chemical introduced into the lake must reflect the average levels of contamination we are already seeing around the world, in order to produce scientifically useful results, but also to avoid risks to the health and safety of people on and around the lakes. In short, visiting or living close to an IISD-ELA lake is just like visiting or living close to any other lake in the world.

Finally, each research project must remediate the lake(s) in question after the research has wrapped up, thus returning them back to their original state.

When it comes to using animals in research, IISD Experimental Lakes Area recognizes that it is a privilege and that animals must be treated with the utmost respect.

With animal research, we focus on “The Three Rs” of animal use (replacement, refinement, reduction) and decrease harm wherever possible, including the prioritization of non-lethal sampling methods. If you are planning to visit IISD-ELA as a researcher, please be sure to read and adhere to our guidelines on animal research at the site. 

Fish are included in our experiments. IISD Experimental Lakes Area lakes contain small populations of fish, such as fathead minnows, pearl dace, white sucker, lake trout, and northern pike. Projects involving wildlife go through an extensive review process prior to start-up. This process ensures that all wildlife within the experiment are being treated with respect and compassion according to the guidelines created by the Canadian Council for Animal Care.

Some exciting avenues of research we are pursuing at IISD-ELA include the pioneering of non-lethal testing methods. Imagine if you could gauge an animal’s health just through their mucus. Sounds miraculous, right? In reality, such sampling methods might be reliably used in our not-too-distant future.

A good way to learn about what happens at IISD Experimental Lakes Area is to follow the work we are doing through our newsletter (check out how to subscribe here). When you’re in between newsletter reads, take a look at blog posts that members of our team have written about our work and the science it is based on.

If you have a more targeted question, we encourage you to reach out to a member of our team. For a list of everyone, look under the “About” section in our top banner bar or click this link. Each member of our team is very friendly and, even if they can’t answer your question, will do their best to help.

IISD Experimental Lakes Area is a not-for-profit, and any work we do is thanks to the generosity of other people who love fresh water. If you’re interested in offering this kind of support, check out our donor page. To find out how to make donating work for you, we encourage you to talk to our philanthropy officer, Erin Bend, about the different options.

If donating just isn’t in the cards for you right now, start helping us by telling your friends, family, and dog about the great work we do at IISD Experimental Lakes Area. There are many ways to be lake friendly!