Lake Ontario Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI)
Summary: 2023 Field Year Priorities

In addition to the below priorities, a priority was identified for the 2023 CSMI projects to be inclusive of
indigenous communities and traditional ecological knowledge. Indigenous Nations, traditional
knowledge holders, and the indigenous science community is encouraged to identify projects according
to traditional teachings and cultural views of the Lake Ontario basin and connecting channels, and in
surrounding indigenous territories to protect water quality, indigenous cultural species, and ecosystem
sustainability in Lake Ontario.

Chemical Contaminants

1.	Characterize critical and emerging pollutants, with a focus on chemicals with potential for trophic
transfer in nearshore and offshore.

2.	How do shifts in the Lake Ontario food web and invasive species affect contaminant transfer?

3.	What are the impacts of climate change on contaminant bioavailability, cycling and movement?

4.	What is the abundance and distribution of microplastics in Lake Ontario and are microplastics
significant vectors for inter/intra basin transport of chemical contaminants and bioaccumulation?

Nutrient and Bacterial Pollution

1.	Improve whole-lake phosphorus load and productivity estimates.

2.	Increase understanding of spatial and temporal patterns of microbial, heterotrophic, and primary
production.

3.	Establish a coupled hydrodynamic ecosystem model that includes phosphorus inputs, transport,
fate, and effects in the Lake.

4.	Integrate new innovative approaches and technologies for measuring/monitoring primary
production (including the benthic alga Cladophora).

Habitat and Species

1.	Increase understanding of the physical drivers offish habitat and impacts on fish recruitment and
production.

2.	Survey and map lake bottom substrates in targeted locations in Lake Ontario.

3.	What are the impacts of lake level fluctuations on habitat and wetland health and ecology.

4.	Improve and enhance winter limnology research and understanding the impacts of a changing
winter season (due to climate change) on Lake and wetland ecosystems.

5.	Understand changing species dynamics, food web structure and energy transfer in Lake Ontario,
including benthos, zooplankton, and fishes.

Invasive Species

1.	Dreissenid mussel population dynamics (including fecundity/recruitment and predation by Round
Goby) and ecosystem impacts.

2.	Impacts of invasive species on wetlands, especially invasive plant species and the question of
whether road salt is driving increases in invasive aquatic plants.

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