A KLSA PROJECT:
KLSA with our partners, Trent University and Queens University (Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab) have initiated a new study entitled: Kawartha Lakes Paleolimnological Study Collection, Analysis and Age-dating of Sediment Cores: “Understanding past to plan for the future”. We are collecting and analyzing sediment core samples to determine the range of variability in vegetation and metals accumulation over the last 200 years. In 1986, MOE collected sediment cores in Sturgeon and Rice. The study concluded the greatest sediment accumulation rates occurred during the last 50 years (1930s to 1980s). Nutrient loadings accounted for most of the additional accumulation, giving rise to accelerated eutrophication of the lakes (this report is on the KLSA website – see Figure 6). If the trend is still occurring, Lake Managers can use this information in setting realistic mitigation targets for aquatic systems. Three have been selected: Cameron Lake, Upper Pigeon and Stony Lake. See the attached map. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
