MTRI - Projects - Freshwater - Loons
The Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI) is a non-profit co-operative with a mandate to advance collaborative research, monitoring, and management that promotes sustainable use of natural resources in southwestern Nova Scotia.
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Why are we studying loons?
The Common Loon is widely used as an indicator of the health of lake ecosystems because of its high trophic position in aquatic food chains. The number of chicks produced each year, the productivity, depends on the number of fish in a lake for the adults and chicks to feed on. Productivity of the Common Loon is adversely affected by such things as acid rain, structural and recreational development of lake shorelines, disturbance by boaters, water-level fluctuations, predators, and mercury pollution. The Canadian Wildlife Service has monitored Common Loon productivity in Kejimkujik National Park from 1988 to 1997. These reports found that low productivity and high blood mercury levels in the prey fish of the Common Loon were correlated. The Canadian Wildlife Service began their research again in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute began using the Common Loon and its productivity to monitor 35 lakes within Kejimkujik and the surrounding region. Each year a team of researchers canoe 35 lakes, often with volunteers, to determine productivity. In addition to a research team, MTRI invites volunteers to participate in the LoonWatch program by monitoring the Common Loon productivity from May through August on a lake. The data from researchers and volunteers is combined to provide a clearer picture of Common Loon productivity in Kejimkujik and surrounding regions.
If you have a lake you would like to monitor for loons become a LoonWatcher. To become a LoonWatcher contact the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute and ask for a LoonWatch package for the lake you would like to monitor. Your LoonWatch package will provide you with a data sheet to fill in for the summer months along with a map of the lake you wish to monitor.
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Project objectives
- To monitor the number of territorial Common loon pairs on the study lakes.
- To monitor the number of loon chicks produced by these territorial pairs.
- To provide data on loon productivity for each study lake, which can then be related to environmental factors, human disturbance and mercury pollution.
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Methods
- Common loons and Common mergansers were surveyed at least three times from early June until September 2007 by trained researchers on 25 lakes within Kejimkujik and 10 lakes in the surrounding area.
- Surveys included adult loons and chicks and common mergansers.
- Surveys were conducted by canoe (except Poplar and Ben Lakes which were only surveyed from shore).
- When loons were located, the time, date, weather and a GPS location of where the loon was first seen were recorded.
- Survey results were summarized in a database and productivity was calculated for each territorial loon pair.
Results
- Fourteen Common loon chicks were counted on 9 of the 25 lakes within Kejimkujik.
- Four loon chicks were counted on the 10 lakes surveyed outside of Kejimkujik.
- On the 35 lakes surveyed, 45 territorial pairs of Common loons were counted.
- A total of 13 large loon chicks were counted at the end of the summer on the 35 lakes.
- Overall, Common loon productivity was 0.29 chicks produced per territorial pair.
- One artificial loon nesting platform was installed at Donnellan Lake in late summer 2007.
Years of Data
- Year 3 of a 5 year project
Partners
- Parks Canada
- Canadian Wildlife Service
- Environment Canada
- Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute
- TD Friends of the Environment Foundation
- Mountain Equipment Co-op