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IISD Experimental Lakes Area
The world’s living laboratory By Sumeep Bath
Visitors to Experimental Lakes Area prepare to board a boat.
unspoiled part of the world that any self-respecting nature lover should have prominently placed on their bucket list. Don’t be fooled by its unassuming beauty; however,
W
Northwestern Ontario is more just a pretty face. In fact, since the late 1960s, a group of its 58 remote lakes and their watersheds just north of Kenora has also performed a vital scientific function: one that has revolutionized the way we research fresh water. Studies done here have led to numer- ous groundbreaking discoveries into what affects our water supplies, and have led to rewritten policies regarding water health around the world. International Institute for Sustainable Development Ex-
24 • Winter 2016
hen it comes to breathtaking vistas, seem- ingly endless open space and pristine lakes bordered by dense forestland, it’s pretty hard to beat Northwestern Ontario. Tis is an
perimental Lakes Area is like no other fresh water research facility in the world. Instead of researching the effects of certain pollutants and processes in a laboratory or a test tube, IISD-ELA researchers experiment directly on the lakes themselves, as they exist in nature. When you work with a test tube, you are working with isolated factors in an artificial setting. When you manipulate a lake (for ex- ample, by intentionally adding a certain contaminant), you are working with a full ecosystem, and are able to examine how all aspects of the ecosystem — from the atmosphere to fish populations — respond. We call this “whole-lake ex- perimentation.” Since its inception in 1968, IISD-ELA is the only place
you can do this in the world on a long-term scale. Te site has been researching new and unstudied threats to our wa- ter supplies like no one else can.
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All photos courtesy of IISD-ELA.
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