Development and Application of a Landscape-Based Lake Typology for the Muskoka River Watershed, Ontario, Canada
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Development and application of a landscape-based lake typology for the Muskoka River Watershed, Ontario, Canada by Rachel Anne Plewes A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geography Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015, Rachel Anne Plewes ABSTRACT Lake management typologies have been used successfully in many parts of Europe, but their use in Canada has been limited. In this study, a lake typology was developed for 650 lakes within the Muskoka River Watershed (MRW), Ontario, Canada, to quantify freshwater, terrestrial, and human landscape influences on water quality (Ca, pH, TP and DOC). Five distinct lake types were identified, using a hierarchical system based on three broad physiographic regions within the MRW, and lake and catchment morphometrics derived through digital terrain analysis. The three regions exhibited significantly different DOC concentrations (F=15.85; p<0.001), whereas the lake types had significantly different TP concentrations (F=12.88, p<0.001). Type-specific reference conditions were used to identify lakes affected by human activities that may be in need of restoration due to high TP concentrations. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the applicability of new and emerging landscape modelling tools for lake classification and management in Ontario, Canada. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Murray C. Richardson for his guidance and support throughout the past 2 years. Additionally, I appreciate all of Dr. Derek Mueller’s feedback on the drafts of this thesis. I am grateful for the guidance I received from Dr. Andrew Paterson and Chris Jones of the Dorset Environmental Science Centre. In addition, I would like to thank Mark MacDougall of the University of Waterloo for sharing his data and helping to quality check my own data. I would like to acknowledge Lorna Murison for all the GIS data she provided me with. I appreciate everyone that shared water quality and lake morphometry data with me: Rebecca Willison of the District Municipality of Muskoka, Russ Weeber of the Canadian Wildlife Service, Dr. Norman Yan of York University, Dr. Michelle Palmer, and the staff at the Dorset Environmental Science Centre. I would like to thank all the staff at the Dorset Environmental Science Centre for input and guidance on my project. Thank you to Melissa Dick for accompanying me on a trip to Muskoka. Additionally, I would like to thank the Canadian Water Network and Carleton University for providing funding. Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and family for academic and moral support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii List of Appendices .......................................................................................................................... x Glossary ........................................................................................................................................... xi List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................................ xiii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research Objectives and Questions ............................................................................... 12 1.2 Thesis Structure .............................................................................................................. 14 2. Background ............................................................................................................................ 15 2.1 Multi-scale lake management and monitoring ............................................................... 15 2.2 Holistic aquatic ecosystem management strategies for lake districts ............................ 18 2.3 Challenges in lake typology development ..................................................................... 21 2.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 28 3. Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 29 3.1 Study Area ...................................................................................................................... 29 3.2 Overview of methodology .............................................................................................. 30 3.3 Water quality data aggregation ...................................................................................... 33 3.4 Development of conceptual model ................................................................................. 35 3.5 Development of the lake typology ................................................................................. 52 3.6 Application of the lake typology .................................................................................... 54 4. Results ................................................................................................................................... 58 4.1 Description of derived landscape characteristics ........................................................... 58 4.2 Identification of landscape relationships with water quality .......................................... 63 4.3 Development of the lake typology ................................................................................. 68 4.4 Application of lake typology .......................................................................................... 75 5. Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 87 5.1 DOC and freshwater landscape features ........................................................................ 87 iv 5.2 Lake depth modelling for the MRW lake typology ....................................................... 91 5.3 Influence of terrain slope and wetland areas on water quality in MRW lakes............... 92 5.4 Associations between Ca and pH and natural landscape factors ................................... 93 5.5 Natural landscape factors and TP ................................................................................... 94 5.6 Human landscape factors mask natural variability of Ca and pH .................................. 97 5.7 Surficial geology in regionalizations and lake typologies ............................................. 98 5.8 Characteristics of MRW lake typology and WFD lake typologies ................................ 99 5.9 TP type-specific reference conditions of MRW and Nordic lake types ....................... 101 5.10 TP site-specific reference conditions MRW and TP quality status classifications ...... 103 5.11 Towards a comprehensive lake-monitoring program for the MRW ............................ 106 5.12 Limitations and errors in lake typology ....................................................................... 108 5.13 Future directions for lake management and research in the MRW .............................. 110 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 112 References ................................................................................................................................... 114 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 133 v LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1: Obligatory and optional factors for WFD lake typologies, table adapted from Free et al. (2006). .............................................................................................................................. 22 Table 3-1: Summary table of all sampling programs that water quality data was obtained from, for more detail see APPENDIX A. ........................................................................................ 34 Table 3-2: Percentage of statistically significant pairwise year-differences in water quality variables as a fraction of the total possible number of year-pairs combinations within the period of 2005-2012. ............................................................................................................. 35 Table 3-3: Summary of data sources for lake depth data that were used for cross-validation of lake depth model. ................................................................................................................... 42 Table 3-4: Summary of all derived freshwater, terrestrial, and human landscape characteristics with their measurement unit and abbreviation. ....................................................................