Overview

Our research scientists, biologists and technicians lead and deliver an innovative and collaborative research program in aquatic ecology and hydrology.

The research focuses on:

  • Inland and Great Lakes:
    • lake ecosystems and how they function
    • ecology and life histories of native species
    • effects of human-caused factors (such as fishing, invasive species and climate change)
  • Aquatic biodiversity and watersheds:
    • ecology and hydrology of rivers and streams
    • conservation genetics of native species
    • species at risk, their habitats and sampling methods
    • effects of human-caused factors (such as climate change and development)

Through aquatic research, we:

  • research and provide expert advice about Ontario’s lake and river ecosystems and species to inform policy development and resource management decisions
  • develop:
    • aquatic monitoring survey designs, sampling methods and analysis techniques
    • diagnostic tools and indicators to measure ecosystem and species health
    • models and decision-support tools to describe how systems function, predict future states, and define uncertainty
    • innovative uses of new technologies to sample ecosystems and species
  • collaborate in the delivery of aquatic research to meet ministry science priorities, with universities and other agencies

There are 4 key research areas (largest to smallest):

  • Great Lakes
  • rivers and streams
  • inland lakes
  • aquatic biodiversity

Great Lakes

Upper Great Lakes and Lake Simcoe fisheries

The Lake Simcoe and the Great Lakes fisheries are affected by many stressors, such as climate change and invasive species. Understanding and dealing with the effects of stressors requires research, which:

  • reduces uncertainty about outcomes of fisheries management decisions
  • helps fisheries managers communicate with stakeholders and rightsholders about the impact of ecosystem changes on fisheries
  • helps fisheries managers build relationships with Indigenous communities by fostering grassroots and collaborative projects that meet the needs of the community and the ministry

Research methods

We focus on how human-caused ecosystem changes affect fisheries resources using tools like:

  • hydroacoustics to study spatial ecology of fish and ecosystem changes
  • simulation modelling to predict how fish will evolve in response to harvest and climate change
  • stable isotope analyses on how ecosystem changes influence predator fish diets
  • acoustic telemetry to study fish movement patterns
  • hatchery experiments to investigate survival and performance of hatchery-raised fish in the wild
  • larval fish and plankton sampling to investigate the influence of invasive species and climate change on fish populations and fisheries harvest

Partners

We conduct our research collaboratively with partners from:

  • within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
  • academia
  • United States management agencies
  • federal governments
  • Indigenous communities

Our recent projects with Saugeen Ojibway Nation use a Two-Eyed Seeing approach to build trust, foster relationship building and address fisheries priorities in Lake Huron.

Contacts

Great Lakes food webs

What we do

We investigate the effects of invasive species, climate change and habitat alteration on aquatic food webs in the Great Lakes.

We also provide science-based resources to inform fisheries policy, species recovery, invasive species mitigation and land use and water quality planning, to help managers and policy makers make decisions.

Our goal is to describe how species interact with one another and the environment around them. This helps us:

  • understand the potential response of fish populations to ecological change
  • be prepared for changes that may occur through planned management or ecological changes such as invasive species establishment or warming climates

Research methods

Our team:

  • uses growth, diets and ecological tracers (such as stable isotopes and contaminants) to measure the interactions among predators, prey and their environment across the landscape over time
  • applies acoustic telemetry to describe movement, distribution and survival of selected fish species
  • develops bioenergetic and ecosystem models to gain insight into which species and to what degree systems may respond to ecological changes
  • performs risk and uncertainty analyses to allow managers to anticipate outcomes to potential events before they happen
  • works with the ministry and partners to improve the effectiveness of fish stocking and monitoring programs to manage Ontario’s aquatic resources

Contacts

Lake Erie fisheries

Lake Erie hosts important commercial and recreational fisheries, especially for walleye. Managing fish stocks to sustain fisheries harvest requires:

  • a detailed understanding of population dynamics
  • reliable assessment of population abundance

The number of fish added to a population that survive to reproduce, known as recruitment, drives population growth of fish species.

Fish habitats provide living space for fish to survive, grow and reproduce. Understanding food web and ecosystem structures allows us to assess fish population growth and impacts of human exploitation.

Research focus areas

Our research focuses on 3 main areas:

  • fish recruitment dynamics: how the number of fish that survive to reproduce varies with changes in habitat, environment and food availability
  • fish habitats: habitat conditions for spawning and feeding areas to better predict changes in fish populations
  • food web structure: how energy moves through the food chain from plankton to prey, fish to predators and how changes in one species can affect populations of other species

Contact:

Rivers and streams

River and stream aquatic ecology

Rivers and streams are important to our culture, ecology and economy. They provide fresh water for:

  • biodiversity
  • human consumption
  • irrigation
  • industrial uses
  • recreation
  • navigation
  • renewable energy generation

As of 2019, about 422,000 anglers spent a combined total of 3.5 million days fishing in Ontario’s rivers and streams, contributing $343 million to the economy every year.

Rivers and streams are threatened by human-caused activities and climate change. This causes substantial declines in biodiversity. In North America, freshwater animals go extinct 5 times faster than land based animals—rates similar to those seen in tropical rainforests. Globally, freshwater fishes went extinct more often than any other vertebrates over the past century. Two-fifths of North America’s freshwater fishes are now classified as imperiled.

Research focus areas

The River and Stream Ecology Lab focuses on the ecology and management of flowing waters. Understanding rivers requires a multi-disciplinary approach that combines:

  • fisheries science
  • geography
  • hydrology
  • physiology

We:

  • classify Ontario's rivers and streams
  • inventory Ontario’s rivers and streams
  • develop monitoring programs including:
    • develop sampling methods
    • describe the state of flowing waters (indicators)
    • use a statistical reporting framework
  • understand hydropower impacts
  • integrate streams and lakes, climate change, adaptation and biodiversity

Contacts

Hydrology

Water is a defining feature of Ontario’s natural, socioeconomic and cultural landscape. We use water for:

  • generating electricity
  • forecasting natural hazards such as floods and drought

The amount of hillslope affects vegetation, habitat, growth rates and vulnerability to fire, as well as the amount of water that travels over land as runoff before it soaks in to the underground water table.

Understanding the hydrology of Ontario helps us respond to:

  • potential changes resulting from a changing climate
  • landscape or human-caused changes such as streamflow alteration by instream developments

Research methods

We work to understand the hydrology of Ontario and the effects of changes in climate and instream development.

Our climate change-related research uses a water balance approach to investigate status and trends in hydrologic cycle components historically and under future climate change scenarios. This approach:

  • includes provincial-scale analyses using secondary data intensive monitoring of an experimental watershed (Petawawa River) and hydrologic modelling
  • helps us better understand how changes to hydrologic processes and the hydrologic function of landscape elements (such as wetlands) affect water balances and the delivery of water to our lakes, streams and rivers

We study flow alteration caused by dams and waterpower facilities to understand:

  • the flow regimes of natural rivers in Ontario
  • the linkages between flow regimes, physical riverine processes and the river ecosystem

We look at ecologically meaningful indicators of hydrologic alteration that can be used in monitoring programs.

Contacts

Inland lakes

Inland lakes

Healthy waters and wild fisheries symbolize the cultural ideal we place on our environment and attract millions of tourists from within and beyond the province every year.

Periodic surveys suggest that inland lake recreational fisheries annually generate nearly $1 billion in economic activity, separate from other recreational uses of cottages and lake water. Keeping this resource sustainable is a core principle of the Ontario Provincial Fish Strategy.

We need continuous scientific inquiry to explore the possible effects of climate change and other stressors (for example deforestation, lakeshore development and invasive species) on our fisheries.

Our research is relevant to those who work together to steward our shared resource including:

  • other scientists seeking to understand our natural world
  • engaged ministry colleagues
  • stakeholders such as First Nations, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Fisheries Management Zone Councils

Research methods

To start our research, we collect and analyze lake survey data across the province.

Ontario boasts a premier provincial Broad-scale Monitoring Program which samples about 700 lakes every 5 years. We conduct intensive sampling on larger lake systems (such as Provincially Significant Inland Fisheries) and locally targeted monitoring programs on a case-by-case basis.

We strive to develop and improve protocols, indicators and models that can be used for fisheries monitoring and assessment. Ontario’s protocols are used across North America and have become a standard tool set for other jurisdictions to adopt.

Using robust data sets, we answer basic questions about:

  • biological, chemical and physical lake characteristics
  • community ecology
  • fish life history

We use our insights to develop tools to make decisions in fisheries and resource management.

Contacts

Northern fisheries

The boreal shield is the largest ecoregion of Ontario and contains most of the province’s lakes.

Fish is an important part of the diet of northern fishers. Fish consumption advisories are most often triggered by mercury.

Our research helps us:

  • understand what controls mercury bioaccumulation in northern fishes
  • update and refine consumption guidelines

Fish harvesting can reduce the relative abundance of older and larger adults in fish stocks. We examine how reproductive performance varies with respect to the age and size of spawners, to:

  • understand the effects of exploitation on fish populations
  • improve resource management

Our research on food webs helps us understand:

  • ecosystem function
  • how various stressors such as invasive species, fish harvesting, and climate change may impact fish production and population dynamics

Current fish community assessments tend to focus on larger lakes and rivers that support fisheries. Expanding fish biodiversity surveys to all aquatic habitats of drainage basins will provide a clearer picture of fish biodiversity at a landscape scale.

Research focus area

The northern fisheries research team focuses our research on:

  • food web structure of northern lakes and rivers in relation to their physical characteristics and fish community composition
  • factors influencing mercury bioaccumulation in northern fishes
  • reproductive ecology, particularly the role of stock demographics on spawning success
  • methods for assessing fish biodiversity at the drainage basin scale

Contacts

Harkness Laboratory of Fisheries Research

Algonquin Provincial Park contains large populations of intact coldwater fish communities (such as lake and brook trout) that are becoming increasingly rare and under stress elsewhere in Central Ontario.

The park also contains unique aquatic communities in relatively pristine condition representing rare food webs. The Algonquin Dome has provided a level of protection to lakes and streams in the park post-glaciation. The distribution of fish species across the park still largely represents post-glacial drainage patterns.

Our research on aquatic communities in Algonquin Provincial Park:

  • helps to assess and inform the management of this important landscape
  • directly informs the sustainable management of similar aquatic ecosystems across the province

Research methods

To investigate research topics that inform sustainable fisheries management, we develop and apply field methods including:

  • standardized index netting
  • acoustic telemetry
  • fisheries hydroacoustics
  • genetic and stable isotope techniques

Algonquin Provincial Park, with its many natural lakes and rivers, provides an opportunity to use these techniques to ask questions about the ecology, distribution and abundance of fish populations and communities, most notably brook and lake trout, in environments that often retain intact post-glacial fish communities.

Results from research on these relatively unaffected fish populations and communities is used to inform fisheries management across the province.

We also take advantage of the natural climate island provided by Algonquin Provincial Park to research the effects of climate warming on:

  • fish habitat use
  • reproductive timing
  • fish population persistence or expansion

Contacts

Aquatic biodiversity

Aquatic biodiversity conservation

Our research program focuses on identifying and addressing information gaps relating to the biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable management of exploited and endangered aquatic species in Ontario to help ensure their long-term sustainability. Our work is done through active collaborations with universities, other agencies and non-government organizations, as well as direct science support and collaboration with other research, management and field units within the ministry.

Much of our research uses genetic tools to assess environmental and human influences on the genetic structure and diversity within and among aquatic populations. DNA analyses are complemented by field experiments, assessment of field populations, and experimental rearing and life history trials at the ministry's Codringtion Fisheries Research Facility. Assessing genetic traits at the molecular and whole-organism levels enables us to weigh the comparative fitness of populations with differing adaptations, as well as determine the heritability of ecological and adaptive traits.

We are applying these combined tools to evaluate rehabilitation efforts for several species, as well as gauging the resilience and adaptive potential of coldwater species in response to climate change and novel stressors.

Our research investigates:

  • environmental DNA detection (eDNA) of aquatic invasive and endangered species
  • genetic stock structure of Great Lakes fishes
  • effects and effectiveness of stocking practices for inland fish populations
  • genetic biodiversity of exploited and endangered fish and mussel species
  • comparative fitness of wild, hatchery, and mixed-ancestry fish
  • genetic assessment of species rehabilitation and reintroduction efforts
  • effective population size and adaptive potential of coldwater species

Contacts:

Aquatic endangered species

Aquatic habitats in Southern Ontario support the largest number of endangered fish and mussel species in Canada. Protecting and recovering species at risk and their habitats is a key part of conserving Ontario’s biodiversity.

Our team’s science has enhanced the information available to:

  • determine whether species should be protected under the Endangered Species Act
  • ensure that recovery and protection actions are effective
  • support the training of aquatic species at risk experts

Research focus areas

Our research focuses on:

  • developing methods to inventory and monitor endangered fish and mussel populations
  • describing the distribution and habitat needs of endangered aquatic taxa in Ontario rivers and Great Lakes coastal wetlands
  • understanding the threat of invasive species and other stressors, such as pollution, to persistence and recovery of endangered aquatic species
  • evaluating the effectiveness of actions to reduce harm to aquatic endangered species or recover their habitats and populations

Contacts: