THE ALBERTA LAKE MANAGEMENT SOCIETY VOLUNTEER LAKE MONITORING PROGRAM 2014 Skeleton Lake Report LAKEWATCH IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM: Alberta Lake Management Society’s LakeWatch Program LakeWatch has several important objectives, one of which is to collect and interpret water quality data on Alberta Lakes. Equally important is educating lake users about their aquatic environment, encouraging public involvement in lake management, and facilitating cooperation and partnerships between government, industry, the scientific community and lake users. LakeWatch Reports are designed to summarize basic lake data in understandable terms for a lay audience and are not meant to be a complete synopsis of information about specific lakes. Additional information is available for many lakes that have been included in LakeWatch and readers requiring more information are encouraged to seek those sources. ALMS would like to thank all who express interest in Alberta’s aquatic environments and particularly those who have participated in the LakeWatch program. These people prove that ecological apathy can be overcome and give us hope that our water resources will not be the limiting factor in the health of our environment. Acknowledgements The LakeWatch program is made possible through the dedication of its volunteers. We would like to thank Orest Kitt, Peter Sherman, Jay McGuire and Sylvia and Brian Lestus for their assistance with sampling Skeleton Lake in 2014. We would also like to thank Jackson Woren, Brittany Kereliuk, and Kara MacAulay who were summer technicians with ALMS in 2014. Program Coordinator Bradley Peter was instrumental in planning and organizing the field program. Mike Bilyk was involved in the training aspects of the program. Lisa Reinbolt was responsible for data management. This report was prepared by Jackson Woren and Bradley Peter. Alberta Environment, the Beaver River Watershed Alliance (BRWA), the Lakeland Industry and Community Association (LICA), and Environment Canada, were major sponsors of the program. 2 SKELETON LAKE: Skeleton Lake is located in the western portion of the Beaver River watershed. The lake’s name is a translation of the Cree Cîpay Sâkâhikan, which means “place of the skeletons”. It is thought that a Cree chief is buried along the shores of the lake.1 The lake is located within the County of Athabasca, 160 km northeast of the city of Edmonton and 6.5 km northeast of the village of Boyle. Skeleton Lake has an extensively developed shoreline with the summer villages of Mewatha and Bondiss on the southern shore of the lake and additional cottage developments on the Figure 1 – Bathymetric map of Skeleton Lake north shore. Skeleton Lake used to be the obtained from Alberta Environment. main source of drinking water for the Town of Boyle but has received its drinking water from the Athabasca River since 2007. The watershed is located in the Dry Mixedwood subregion of the Boreal Mixedwood natural region.2 Several small intermittent streams flow into the lake and drain a watershed that is four times the size of the lake.3 The outlet is a small creek located at the southeast end of the lake, and drains eastward into Amisk Lake. Beaver dams, however, often block the outlet. Tree cover in the watershed is primarily trembling aspen and secondarily white spruce, balsam poplar, and white birch. Peatlands are also significant, and most Figure 2 – A view of the north bay of Skeleton agricultural activities in the watershed take Lake. Photo: Pauline Pozsonyi. place in the southern and northwestern sections. 1 Aubrey, M. K. 2006. Concise place names of Alberta. Retrieved from http://www.albertasource.ca/placenames/resources/searchcontent.php?book=1 2 Strong, W.L. and K.R. Leggat. 1981. Ecoregions of Alberta. Alta. En. Nat. Resour., Resour. Eval. Plan. Div., Edmonton. 3 Mitchell, P. and E. Prepas. 1990. Atlas of Alberta Lakes, University of Alberta Press. Retrieved from http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/projects/alberta-lakes/ 3 Skeleton Lake is divided into two basins. The North basin (Figure 2) is nearly entirely separated from the South basin by a shallow, weedy narrows. During the late 1940’s, when lake levels were low, the two basins were separated by exposed land at the narrows. In 2008, the lake levels were again low enough that the narrows were dry and have remained relatively dry to date. The North basin is small and deep, with steeply sloped sides that reach a maximum depth of about 17 m. The larger South basin slopes gradually to a maximum depth of 11 m. Skeleton Lake is very fertile and blooms of blue-green algae turn the water green in both basins during the summer months. The average concentrations of algae in the South basin are higher than in the North basin. Because the basins are almost disconnected and the morphology and water quality characteristics of the two basins differ, the water quality of the North and South basins are monitored separately. The results for both basins are presented in this report. WATER QUANTITY: There are many factors influencing water quantity. Some of these factors include the size of the lakes drainage basin, precipitation, evaporation, water consumption, ground water influences, and the efficiency of the outlet channel structure at removing water from the lake. 624.0 623.6 623.2 622.8 622.4 Elevation (m asl) (m Elevation 622.0 621.6 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 Date Figure 3 – Water levels at Skeleton Lake measured in meters above sea level (m asl). Data obtained from Alberta Environment. 4 Water levels in Skeleton Lake have been monitored in the south basin since 1965 under the joint Federal-Provincial Hydrometric agreement (Figure 3). Consistent with other lakes in the area, water levels have decreased steadily by about 1.6 m since the 1970s, with the exception of 1997, an extremely wet period, during which the water level increased to a historical maximum of 623.9 meters above sea level (m asl). Over the past 14 years, water levels in Skeleton Lake have declined to a historical minimum of 621.797 m asl in 2012. Declining water levels are a major stakeholder concern for this lake. In 2011, monitoring of water levels by Environment and Sustainable Resource Development began in the North basin of Skeleton Lake – average elevation in 2013 was 621.907 m asl. WATER CLARITY AND SECCHI DEPTH: Water clarity is influenced by suspended materials, both living and dead, as well as dissolved colored compounds in the water column. During the melting of snow and ice in spring, lake water can become turbid (cloudy) from silt transported into the lake. Lake water usually clears in late spring but then becomes more turbid with increased algal growth as the summer progresses. The easiest and most widely used measure of lake water clarity is the Secchi disk depth Figure 4 - Secchi depth readings from the profile site at Skeleton Lake North during 2014. North: Average Secchi disk depth measured 2.81 m during the summer of 2014 (Figure 4, Table 3). This value falls on the high end of the historical variation observed at Skeleton Lake North. Throughout the summer, Secchi disk depth fluctuated between a minimum of 1.4 m on June 14th and a maximum of 4.7 m on July 1st. Changes in Secchi disk depth did not appear closely correlated with changes in chlorophyll-a concentration suggesting that algae/cyanobacteria may not have been the primary factors affecting water clarity in the North basin of Skeleton Lake during 2014. 5 Figure 5 - Secchi depth readings from the profile site at Skeleton Lake South during 2014. South: Average Secchi disk depth in the South basin of Skeleton Lake measured 1.56 m, which is lower than that measured in the North basin (Figure 5, Table 1). The 2014 value falls well within the historical variation previously measured at Skeleton Lake South. Throughout the summer, Secchi disk depth fluctuated between a minimum of 0.75 m on August 5th and a maximum of 2.9 m on June 23rd. As the South basin of Skeleton Lake has higher average concentrations of both chlorophyll-a and, historically, total suspended solids than the North basin, a lower water clarity is to be expected. WATER TEMPERATURE AND DISSOLVED OXYGEN: Water temperature and dissolved oxygen profiles in the water column can provide information on water quality and fish habitat. The depth of the thermocline is important in determining the depth to which dissolved oxygen from the surface can be mixed. Please refer to the end of this report for descriptions of technical terms. North: As with 2013, thermal stratification was observed on each sampling trip, beginning as early as 4.0 m on June 14th and as late as 7.5 m on September 9th (Figure 4a). Thermal stratification remained strong in September, and it is unknown whether the lake became fully mixed later in the year (dimictic), or if the lake remains stratified year round (meromictic). Weaker stratification observed in June may suggest a brief mixing event after ice off. This pattern of thermal stratification is typical of small, deep lakes in Alberta. Surface water temperature ranged from a minimum of 15.04 °C on September 9th to a maximum of 21.76 °C on August 9th. On each trip, water temperature proceeded to less than 10 °C at the lake-sediment interface. South: In contrast to the North basin of Skeleton Lake, the South basin of Skeleton Lake only experienced very weak thermal stratification on the three of the five sampling trips (Figure 4b). Given the shallow depth of the South basin of Skeleton Lake, it is easy for wind energy to mix 6 the water column.