Experimental Lakes Area
| Founder(s) | W. E. Johnson John Vallentyne |
|---|---|
| Established | 1968 |
| Faculty | David W. Schindler (1968-1989) |
| Budget | $2.5 million |
| Location | Kenora District, Ontario, Canada |
| Website | Experimental Lakes Area |
The Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) is an internationally unique research station encompassing 58 formerly pristine freshwater lakes in Kenora District Ontario, Canada. Previously run by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, after being de-funded by the Canadian Federal Government, the facility is now managed and operated by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and has a mandate to investigate the aquatic effects of a wide variety of stresses on lakes and their catchments. The ELA uses the whole ecosystem approach and makes long-term, whole-lake investigations of freshwater focusing on eutrophication.
In an article published in AAAS's well-known scientific journal Science, Eric Stokstad described ELA's "extreme science" as the manipulation of whole lake ecosystem with ELA researchers collecting long-term records for climatology, hydrology, and limnology that address key issues in water management. The ELA has influenced public policy in water management in Canada, the USA and Europe.
Minister of State for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, argued that "our government has been working hard to ensure that the Experimental Lakes Area facility is transferred to a non-governmental operator better suited to conducting the type of world-class research that can be undertaken at this facility” and that “[t]he federal government has been leading negotiations in order to secure an operator with an international track record." On April 1, 2014, the International Institute for Sustainable Development announced that it had signed three agreements to ensure that it will be the long-term operator of the ELA research facility.
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