Description

Acid-Sensitive Lakes Nine hundred and thirty-three lakes located in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories were sampled to establish current acidification status. Of the 933 lakes, 244 (or 26%) are considered acid sensitive, almost always because of naturally low calcium and magnesium (or "base cation") concentrations. The most acid-sensitive lakes (i.e., those with extremely low base cation concentrations) are located on the Canadian Shield in both Alberta and Saskatchewan and east of the oils sands development area. Fifty-one of the 244 acid-sensitive lakes were sampled twice annually (spring and fall) to identify chemical changes through trend analyses. Results revealed that 55% of these lakes had concentrations of some metals in excess of Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guidelines. Of the 291 samples taken in the 51 lakes, iron concentrations were greater than guidelines in 36% (105 samples), aluminum in 33% (97 samples), lead in 0.3% (1 sample) and copper in 0.3% (1 sample). The metals in these lakes occur naturally and are expected to be found in a wide range of concentrations given the geology and physiography of the Canadian Shield. It remains to establish the relationship between acid sensitivity, geology and high metal concentrations.

Resources

Name	Format	Description	Link
Acid-Sensitive Lakes -Topographic Maps	PDF		https://donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/substances/monitor/acid-sensitive-lakes-oil-sands-region/Acid-sensitive Lakes Map Information Monitoring Level1-2-En-Fr.pdf
Acid Sensitive Lakes - Level 1 and Level 2 Monitoring - Water Chemistry Data (English)	CSV		https://donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/substances/monitor/acid-sensitive-lakes-oil-sands-region/?lang=en
Acid Sensitive Lakes - Level 1 and Level 2 Monitoring - Water Chemistry Data (French)	CSV		https://donnees.ec.gc.ca/data/substances/monitor/acid-sensitive-lakes-oil-sands-region/?lang=fr
Scientific Publication - Site-specific estimates of water yield applied regional acid sensitivity surveys across western Canada	PDF		https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228662455_Site-specific_estimates_of_water_yield_applied_in_regional_acid_sensitivity_surveys_across_western_Canada
Scientific Publication - Chapter: Critical Loads and Dynamic Risk Assessments “Critical Load Assessments and Dynamic Model Applications for Lakes in North America”	PDF		https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231016303661
Scientific Publication - Chemical characteristics and acid sensitivity of boreal headwater lakes in northwest Saskatchewan	PDF		https://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~jjgibson/mypdfs/04_scott.pdf
Scientific Publication - Recently surveyed lakes in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada: characteristics and critical loads of acidity	PDF		https://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~jjgibson/mypdfs/05_jeffries.pdf

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