Grant: Strategic Network Grants Program

Canada has more lakes than any other country and relies heavily on them for drinking water, food, recreation, and many other economic, social, and cultural activities. Yet, the ability of lakes to play their ecological role has been affected by diverse human influences throughout the country, including domestic, agricultural and industrial pollution, as well as land use, and climate change. This situation will likely be exacerbated in the future. Surprisingly, a pan-Canadian perspective on this issue has not been pursued and thus it is not possible to answer the pressing questions: ""What is the health status of Canadian lakes, how has it changed, and how will it likely change in the future?"" To benefit Canada's stewardship of lakes, addressing these questions forms our main goal. To reach this goal, we have brought together 20 of Canada's top limnologists, remote sensing specialists, public health scientists and spatial modellers, as well as key international collaborators, to develop innovative approaches and techniques. To gain further insight into how to best address the needs of various stakeholders, we have engaged with several partners such as Environment Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, the environment ministries of five provinces and territories, Ouranos. To reach our goals, we will launch a pan-Canadian sampling effort to collect cutting-edge information, including metagenomic, emerging contaminant, optical and paleolimnological data, from hundreds of lakes. Collectively, these consistent and standardized data will allow us to address our cross-disciplinary questions, with the active participation of students, other trainees, and our partners. Ultimately, we will develop interactive maps to assess the past, current and future states of Canadian lakes, and provide new tools for lake assessments ranging from genetic markers to remote sensing approaches. These key outcomes will allow improved stewardship of our lakes by our partners, while also producing new fundamental scientific knowledge about limnological processes to support the most appropriate management policies.