In true IISD Experimental Lakes Area style, we have spent over 50 years collecting data on a whole host of aspects of our lakes. And all of this data goes into building the most complete and holistic picture of the health of lakes—not just here in northwestern Ontario but across the continent and around the globe.
We look at everything, from the depth of ice on the lakes in the winter to their changing chemical makeup to how much oxygen is produced by algae. Then we consider how it all interacts, at all levels of the ecosystem. Everything matters when it comes to building a rich understanding of where our fresh water is headed.
Some of this data is harvested over the long term in five of our reference lakes that are not manipulated in any way. The rest is collected as part of research projects conducted on our lakes on specific threats to fresh water—from algal blooms to plastics.
The world’s freshwater laboratory is committed to ensuring the information collected from our research is available to scientists across the globe, and anyone who is interested.
So, if you would like to learn more about the data sets available, scroll down to learn more. If you would like to receive some of our data, please fill out our Scientific Data Request Form, and click here for details on when each data set is updated.