Long-Term Ecological Research

At IISD-ELA, five lakes are set aside for long-term monitoring under our Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program; Lake 114, Lake 224, Lake 239, Lake 373, and Lake 442 (discover our lakes here).

These lakes are not manipulated in any way and, as such, are often used as control lakes for the various experiments performed at IISD-ELA. Control lakes are important to our experiments to verify that the effects we see are a result of manipulation and not a product of natural variability.

Since our LTER lakes are not manipulated, the long-term monitoring program has become increasingly important in identifying how lakes and the animals that inhabit them react to subtle changes in climate.