KLSA Activities
Lake Oxygen and Temperature Monitoring
Climate change is expected to have an impact on the water temperatures in our lakes. This means our lakes will warm as our climate continues to warm.
Warming lakes will undoubtedly have spinoff effects on things influenced by water temperatures, such as the timing of fish migration and spawning, the growth of aquatic plants, the severity of algae blooms, the amount of dissolved oxygen, and how long people can comfortably swim.
Given the significance of water temperature to all life in our lakes (human and otherwise), this topic remains poorly understood and significantly understudied. KLSA is taking action to change this.
Lake Temperature and Oxygen Monitoring Program
Volunteers track changes in dissolved oxygen and water temperature in our lakes. This is done by using a probe to take measurements from surface to bottom in the deepest part of each lake, and by installing portable logging devices in shallow water on docks and buoys.
Dissolved oxygen and water temperature are important indicators of lake health. They influence water quality, aquatic life, and habitat conditions. Climate change is expected to increase the temperatures of lake water which could lead to a reduction in dissolved oxygen conditions. By tracking these over time, we gain a better understanding of the natural variability in our lakes, and how climate change is impacting them.
Probe sampling (dissolved oxygen and water temperature) is undertaken in late summer within the last two weeks of August. The portable logging devices (water temperature only) are deployed on docks over the summer from June 1st to August 31st, and deployed on buoys all year long.
This is creating an impressive database of water temperature information. For example, during the 4-year span of 2020 to 2023, there were 47 logger deployments at 31 unique sites on 13 lakes across the Kawartha Lakes. Every hour a data point was logged, so this is the equivalent of one person taking 150,000 individual thermometer readings! By creating a summary of all data collected through the program, we have the early stages of a ‘thermograph’ that shows the spread of water temperatures across the Kawartha Lakes. Think of it like creating a daily almanac for water temperature.
Over the next few years, we would like to continue adding data to our water temperature almanac. This means we keep monitoring the sites we have currently while also striving to expand our coverage across the Kawartha Lakes by adding new volunteers at new sites. We would also like to establish a partnership with a college or university to help us determine how much data we need to collect to capture baseline conditions. We also want to establish a mathematical relationship between air and water temperature, which will help us estimate the warming rate of our lakes depending on climate change emission scenarios. This will help us better understand the impacts of climate change on fish, aquatic plants, algae, ice cover, and other important features of our lakes.
If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact us! We would like to give a special thanks to all the program volunteers since 2020. Without you this project is not possible.
Contact Us
If you are interested in being part of this important program please contact us at klsa@klsa.info