Lake 226 (original) (raw)

Lake 226 is one lake in Canada's Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in Ontario. The ELA is a freshwater and fisheries research facility that operated these experiments alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada. In 1968 this area in northwest Ontario was set aside for limnological research, aiming to study the watershed of the 58 small lakes in this area. The ELA projects began as a response to the claim that carbon was the limiting agent causing eutrophication of lakes rather than phosphorus, and that monitoring phosphorus in the water would be a waste of money. This claim was made by soap and detergent companies, as these products do not biodegrade and can cause buildup of phosphates in water supplies that lead to eutrophication. The theory that carbon was the limiting agent