Wascana Lake in Regina will be used in experiments to study the effect of fertilizers on lake water. (Kevin O'Connor/CBC)The artificial Wascana Lake in Regina, notorious for its algae and other plant growth, has been selected for a major study on the effects of fertilizer on lakes.
Biologists from the University of Regina are participating in the study, which involves several universities looking at different questions regarding fertilizers and water systems.
In Regina, samples of water from Wascana Lake are being taken every three weeks over the course of the summer. Some will be treated with urea, a common form of fertilizer, while control samples will be left alone.
After a time, the water will be tested to see what happens to both the control samples and those with added fertilizer.
"Urea is great for crops. It's really a low-impact fertilizer," Peter Leavitt, a biologist at the University of Regina, told CBC News on Thursday. "In Saskatchewan, we're actually leading the country in its use.
"But we don't have a great idea of what happens if it gets off the soil and gets into the water," Leavitt explained. "So, this is part of a very large project that was just funded by the federal government to try and get a better understanding of what these kinds of organic molecules do to the environment.
"We're trying to understand its effects on the algae вЂ" the green stuff in the water вЂ" as well as the bacteria."
'Wascana Lake is a great model for many lakes in southern Saskatchewan.'вЂ" Peter Leavitt, University of Regina biologist
Leavitt said the followup testing will focus on the microscopic bacteria in particular.
"What we're doing this year is trying to understand the effects on bacteria. The algae, the green stuff, you can see," he said. "The bacteria you can't see right away, so they could pose more of a hazard or they could be beneficial, and we know so little about this, we're just trying to get some preliminary information."
"Wascana Lake is a great model for many lakes in southern Saskatchewan, and it's also a good model for lakes in other agricultural regions in the world," Leavitt said. "The lake is naturally nutrient-rich, so it's a lake that may be sensitive to additional inputs of nitrogen and other molecules."
Link to algae growth part of study
Leavitt said the goal of the research is to clear up some questions about the impact of urea fertilizer on water systems.
"Urea wasn't used prior to 1970, and since its use the blue-green algae tends to be worse," Leavitt said. "So people would point at that and go, 'Oh look. It's the urea.'
"But, it's also warmer than it's ever been, so maybe it's temperature," he said. "We're trying to pull things apart and try to identify what the actual cause is, rather than just guessing."
Leavitt said the issue is important to Saskatchewan as an agricultural province.
"Ultimately this is a benefit to the province, because there's going to be three billion more people on the planet in the next 50 years. We absolutely must feed them. And Saskatchewan is the world's bread basket," Leavitt said. "We're going to be feeding them from food produced here and we're going to need the fertilizer."
Smells like spring
The Regina lake produces a foul odour every spring, when the ice breakup releases trapped gas from a winter's worth of decomposing vegetation.
"The conditions that make this area good for growing crops, also make it good for growing plants in the water," Leavitt said about the seasonal pungency emitted from the lake. "The smell comes from having ice over the whole lake all winter long, and when it melts, that sort of rotting egg smell comes up."
Leavitt said if there is a link between fertilizers and plant growth, managers of Wascana Lake could work on that.
"Part of it is trying to reduce the nutrient input so there's less green stuff and therefore less stuff to decompose," he said. "So, it might help. It might not."
Leavitt said they hope to have preliminary results early in 2010.
