PROJECT QUINTE ANNUAL REPORT 2014 Bay of Quinte RAP Restoration Council / Project Quinte Monitoring Report #25 Summer 2016 BAY OF QUINTE REMEDIAL ACTION PLAN MONITORING REPORT #25 PROJECT QUINTE ANNUAL REPORT 2014 prepared by Project Quinte members in support of the Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Summer 2016 Editors Note: This report does not constitute publication. Many of the results are preliminary findings. The information has been provided to assist and guide the Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan. The information and findings cannot be used in any manner or quoted without the consent of the individual authors. Individual authors should be contacted prior to any other proposed application of the data herein. CONTENTS PREFACE 4 INTRODUCTION 6 WATER TEMPERATURE MONITORING IN THE BAY OF QUINTE, 2014 9 S.M. Larocque and S.E. Doka POINT SOURCE PHOSPHORUS LOADINGS: 1965 TO 2014 21 P. Kinstler and A. Morley PHYTOPLANKTON AND MICROBIAL FOOD WEB INTERACTIONS AT A LONG-TERM MONITORING STATION IN THE BAY OF QUINTE: BELLEVILLE, 2014 25 M. Munawar, R. Rozon, M. Fitzpatrick and H. Niblock ZOOPLANKTON IN THE BAY OF QUINTE – 2014 39 K.L. Bowen, R. Rozon and W.J.S. Currie FISH POPULATIONS IN THE BAY OF QUINTE, 2014 57 J. A. Hoyle PREFACE BAY OF QUINTE REMEDIAL ACTION PLAN MONITORING REPORT #25 2014 PROJECT QUINTE ANNUAL REPORT (Summer 2016) In 1985, the Great Lakes Water Quality Board of the International Joint Commission (IJC) identified 42 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes basin where the beneficial uses were impaired. The Board rec- ommended that the appropriate jurisdictions and government agencies prepare, submit and implement a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) in each area to restore the water uses. The Bay of Quinte was designated as one of the Areas of concern. Ten of 14 beneficial uses de- scribed in Annex 2 of the Great lakes Water Quality Agreement (revised 1987) are impaired. The impaired uses include beach postings, eutrophication or undesirable algae, restrictions on fish consumption, taste and odour problems in drinking water, etc. The contributing factors are excessive phosphorus loadings, persistent toxic contaminants, bacteriological contamination, as well as alterations and destruction of shorelines, wetland and fish habitat. Project Quinte is a long-term, multi-agency research and monitoring project. The project’s origi- nal objectives included studying, comparing, and evaluating the Bay of Quinte limnological attributes (biological, chemical and physical) before and after phosphorus control was implemented at municipal sewage treatment plants thus reducing phosphorus loads to the bay. Project Quinte was launched over 40 years ago in 1972 and is still operating (Minns et al., 2011, 2012). The time between 1972 and 1977 has been referred to as the “pre-phosphorus control” period, while post-1977 is called “post-phosphorus control” period. Changes in water quality, as well as aquatic communities (e.g. phytoplankton, zoo- plankton, benthic and fish) between pre- and post-control periods have been compared. Phosphorus control strategies were assessed. Finally, long-term ecosystem responses within the Bay of Quinte were examined and described. Another focus of Project Quinte is to assess changes in lower trophic level productivity in response to the invasion of the bay by Zebra Mussels that began in 1994. Since 2000, microbial loop assessment, consisting of the enumeration of bacteria, autotrophic picoplankton and ciliates, has been included in the program. Also, size fractionated primary productivity was included in the monitoring to assess the contributions of various size fractions of phytoplankton. The response to invasion of the bay by both Zebra Mussels and other non-native species of zooplankton and fish and how changes are transferred up the food chain is currently being addressed. Clearly, managing both the fishery as well as phosphorus loadings during alterations in the food chain presents a challenge that requires the yearly productivity assessment provided by Project Quinte. This report is the 25th in the Bay of Quinte RAP monitoring report series. It is a window looking into the status of the Bay by providing information about projects and results currently being conducted 4 in the Bay in support of the Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan. The report presents preliminary find- ings and data. It does not necessarily represent the views or policies of the sponsoring agencies. The information and data contained in the report, more or less, serves as background reference material. The information has been compiled and reported so that: 1. the Bay of Quinte RAP Restoration Council and QWC can formulate abatement and remedial options, 2. remedial actions can be monitored and progress reported, and 3. researchers can be informed about the current status of the health of the Bay of Quinte The report has been prepared as part of the Bay of Quinte RAP under the auspices of the Cana- da-Ontario Great Lakes Remedial Action Plan. Financial assistance and technical sponsorship for the investigations and research was provided by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Through this pref- ace the Bay of Quinte RAP Restoration Council notifies potential users that this report does not consti- tute publication. References Minns, C.K., Munawar, M., Koops, M.A., Millard, E.S., 2011. Long-term ecosystem studies in the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario, 1972- 2008. A prospectus. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt. 14(1), 3-8. Minns, C.K., Munawar, M., Koops, M.A., 2012. Preface. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt. 14(1), 369. Bay of Quinte Information Symposium “Ecosystem Health and Recovery of the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario: Past, Present and Future”, May 9, 2010. Organized by: Aquatic Eco- system Health & Management Society as a special session at the International Association for Great Lakes Research’s 53rd annual conference on Great Lakes Research. Toronto, Ontario. Primary Publications Besides the series of annual reports, of which this is the 25th, the following publications have been printed on the Bay of Quinte: Minns, C.K., Hurley, D.A., Nicholls, K.H. (Eds.), 1986. Special publication: “Project Quinte: Point-Source Phosphorus Control and Eco- system Response in the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario”. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 86. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society, 2011. Special issue: “Ecosystem Health and Recovery of the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario”. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt. 14(1). Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society, 2012. Special issue: “Ecosystem Health and Recovery of the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario: Part II”. Aquat. Ecosyst. Health Mgmt. 15(4). 5  INTRODUCTION Project Quinte is a co-operative, multi-agency, research and monitoring project between the federal (De- partment of Fisheries and Oceans) and provincial governments (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Ministry of the Environment) that has investigated the long-term effects of the reduction in point-source phosphorus (P) loadings (Minns et al., 1986), food-chain influences (Nicholls and Hurley, 1989), and more recently Zebra Mussel colonization (RAP monitoring reports Nos.7-12) on trophic dy- namics of the entire bay ecosystem. The Bay of Quinte is one of 42 severely impaired ecosystems (Area of Concern - AOC) on the Great Lakes. Annex 2 of the Revised Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978 outlined a three stage Remedial Action Plan process that called for the identification of impaired beneficial uses (Stage I), their causes and a plan to be implemented (stage II) to restore these uses. The third and final stage of the RAP process requires monitoring to measure the success of RAP implementation that should ultimately lead to delisting the Bay of Quinte as an AOC. Project Quinte has been invaluable to stage three of the Remedial Action Plan (RAP), supporting an essential, continuing program of research and monitoring in the bay. Project Quinte has contributed long-term data that was used to produce compre- hensive assessments of the status of two impaired beneficial uses, phytoplankton (Nicholls, Monitoring Report #11) and zooplankton (Johannsson and Nicholls, Monitoring Report #12). Project Quinte presented the first evidence of the impact of Zebra Mussels on the Bay of Quinte ecosystem in the 1995 monitoring report. Since that time we have observed variable impact, both spa- tially and inter-annually, of this invader on physical, chemical and biological properties of the bay (e.g. transparency, phosphorus, and lower trophic level biomass and production). There are no other Great Lakes studies that have the benefit of the extensive multi-trophic level database that exists for the Bay of Quinte to determine ecosystem level impacts of Dreissenid Mussels. We stand to learn a great deal about the impacts of this exotic species on fisheries productivity in the Bay of Quinte that may be of use in other ecosystems where background data is not as extensive. The scope of the work in Project Quinte is rare in freshwater ecosystem research, now encompass- ing multi-year, multi-trophic level data from bacteria to fish. Long-term data sets for biomass, species composition and production for all trophic levels provide a unique opportunity to model trophic interac- tions in the bay and determine how various factors are impacting important fish populations. This report provides a detailed summary of the results and highlights for the 2014 field season, prepared by various scientists studying the bay. Please contact these individuals directly if further ex- planation or detail is required. Link to the Remedial Action Plan Progress towards restoration goals must be measured in order to delist impaired beneficial uses. The 6 ongoing monitoring provided by Project Quinte is invaluable in assessing restoration progress as the federal government attempts to delist this AOC. The restoration goals originally set as part of the stage II development were considered to be the interim.