Acid rain : a preliminary estimate of the risk to Ontario's inland fisheries / by C.K. Minns.: Fs97-4/1622E-PDF

"The lake inventory database of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, in conjunction with counts of numbers and areas of lakes by watershed and size, are used to estimate the quantity of Ontario's inland fishery resources which are at risk from acid precipitation. The inventory data include conductivity, pH, morphometry and fish community information. These data are taken to be representative of the total, after correction for the over representation of brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis. Lakes are classified according to acid stress, sensitivity, and fish community. The results indicate that up to 350000 hectares of lakes (16000) are in areas where the precipitation pH is low and the lake waters poorly buffered. The lakes in this condition mostly contain salmonid dominated fish communities, lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush, and/or brook trout. If these lakes are acidified to the point where they are incapable of sustaining fish communities, Ontario stands to lose more than 30% of some key salmonid fisheries. Among the 16000 lakes, there are 4600 which must be considered as being already acidified. Many of these lakes are small and are in the Sudbury-La Cloche region, where previous studies have identified many larger lakes as having been acidified, predominately as a result of local smelter operations"--Abstract, page iii.

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