Introduction
The Turkey Lakes Watershed (TLW) study
(https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/turkey-lakes-watershed-study.html)
was established in 1979 and is one of the longest running
watershed-based ecosystem studies in Canada (Foster, Beall &
Kreutzweiser, 2005; Jeffries, Kelso & Morrison, 1988; Morrison,
Cameron, Foster & Groot, 1999). The watershed drains 10.5
km2 of Eastern Temperate Mixed Forest (Baldwin et al.,
2018) or Great Lakes – St. Lawrence forest region (Rowe, 1972) within
the Boreal Shield Ecozone (Wiken, 1986), and is located approximately 60
km north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (47°03’N, 84°25’W) (Figure 1).
Researchers from several federal government departments (Natural
Resources Canada (NRCAN), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) established this research
watershed to evaluate the impacts of acid rain on terrestrial and
aquatic ecosystems (e.g., Foster, Hazlett, Nicolson & Morrison, 1989;
Hazlett, Curry & Weldon, 2011; Jeffries, Semkin, Beall & Franklyn,
2002; Kelso 1988). Since its inception, many studies have taken a
multi-disciplinary, whole-ecosystem approach to investigate the
processes governing terrestrial and aquatic responses to natural and
anthropogenic disturbances. This holistic approach has allowed research
to expand from its original acidification focus to address a range of
other ongoing and emerging environmental issues (e.g. habitat
alteration, organic contaminants, forest management, climate change) and
to involve numerous academic, government and industrial collaborators.