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Collecting methane seep gas, Mackenzie Delta

Science Consulting

Oceanography, acoustics, remote sensing, data analysis, technical writing.

Services include instrument design; data analysis and graphic depiction of data using a wide range of scientific, analytical and animation softwares.

Emphasis has been on physical processes including the development of animations to depict time series. A sample of past projects has been compiled and is listed below

Science Projects

Water quality sampling

Swan Lake Water Quality Monitoring

In this ongoing monitoring program (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023), water quality time series are being developed through the collection of weekly profile measurements of such parameters as dissolved oxygen, pH, light penetration, temperature, and oxidation reduction potential. Water samples are also being collected to measure nitrate and phosphate levels. During the summer months, algal blooms are a common occurrence at this shallow warm eutrophic lake. With the collection of these water quality attributes, seasonal changes are observable and provide insight into the ecology of this system.

An archive of six years of Swan Lake water quality reports conducted by Diversified Scientific Solutions has been compiled on the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary's website here.

Studying cyanobacterial blooms, nutrients and oxygen in a phosphorus-rich lake  (Article in the Environmental Science and Engineering magazine February 2022 edition)

Studying algal blooms, light penetration and oxygen levels in a phosphorus-rich lake (Article in the Environmental Science and Engineering magazine February 2021 edition)

Monitoring algal blooms and dissolved oxygen to improve lake water quality (Article in Environmental Science & Engineering magazine October 2019 edition)

Swan Lake Water Quality Monitoring Program 2018-Final-Report.pdf

Press release August 2018

Swan Lake Bathymetry survey
Swan Lake Bathymetry survey

Bathymetric Survey of Swan Lake

The last bathymetric survey done on Swan Lake was carried out by D. Coombes and K. Wright with the BC Ministry of Environment in 1981 (Coombes and Wright, 1982). In this brief report, a new bathymetric
survey is described that was carried out by a canoe survey on May 26th and June 1st, 2021. This survey was done in conjunction with an ongoing water quality monitoring program being conducted by Diversified Scientific Solutions for Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary (Bowen, 2021). The apparatus and steps involved to acquire and process the sonar and track data are outlined and a new bathymetric contour map is presented. Sonar logs were recorded, revealing locations of aquatic plant beds and the presence of a large number of fish. In addition, area and volume calculations were made of the lake and compared to other estimates of these parameters found in the literature. 

The bathymetric Survey report can be found on the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary website here.

High Stream Flow Induced Tree Vibration

High Stream Flow Induced Tree Vibrations
Field Report December 2019–January 2020 

In December of 2018, it was observed that trees adjacent to a flooding creek were noticeably vibrating. This second growth forest located on the west coast of Vancouver Island has steep terrain and is subject to heavy winter rainfalls often exceeding 50 mm/day. In this study, two Oregon Research Electronics AL101 accelerometers were used at this same site to determine if high volume stream flow induces detectable tree vibrations that could possibly lead to slope instabilities. Deployments of these instruments took place over late November to mid-January 2020 when several large rain events occurred. Data analysis showed the instruments were able to detect signals above the instrument noise. A method was used to difference maximum and minimum deflection values using a one-minute window to remove the influence of temperature drift on the output data. 

Instruments supplied by Oregon Research Electronics

satellite data analysis

Haida Eddy Characteristics and
Ship Position Magnitudes and Aspects

Conducted an integrated study linking DFO’s oceanography work with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s work on seabird foraging ecology. Three tasks were carried out in this study. Task 1 examined altimeter sea surface eddy features of plus 10 cm elevations. Eddy trajectories, persistence, displacements and velocities were compiled while histograms, time series curves and eddy track plots were
presented to characterize the various physical attributes of these eddies spanning the study period of 1993–2015. Carried out study in 2017.

(Client: Institute of Ocean Sciences & Environment and Climate Change Canada)

Sea surface eddies

Pacific Ocean Mesoscale Eddy Study 

Calculated eddy areas based on sea surface height anomaly thresholds. Worked with TOPEX, JASON 1 and JASON 2 satellite altimeter gridded and along track data sets to produce geostrophic currents as well as measure eddy areas along the BC coast. Created animations of TOPEX/Poseidon Sea Surface Height Anomalies for the North Pacific spanning the years 1993 - 2017. (see more details)

(Client Institute of Ocean Sciences)

ROPOS

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Navigator

Trained as an ROV navigator for the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility in May 2011. Participated as navigator for ROPOS dives during 24 hour operations for the NEPTUNE Canada and Venus Projects for July and September 2011 cruises. 

(Client: Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility)

Methane seep greenhouse gas study

Methane Seep Greenhouse Gas Study

Designed the flux funnel and carried out field research on the Mackenzie Delta to study methane flux from natural source methane seeps. Study spanned 2006 through 2011 with field visits in the spring, summer and fall. Field investigations have included sonar and ROV surveys, gas chemistry sampling, hydrophone mooring deployments and sediment bearing capacity using a ground penetrating penetrometer

(Client: Pacific Geoscience Centre - Geological Survey of Canada)

bubble detection algorithm

Bubble Detection Algorithm

Developed a bubble detection algorithm to convert bubble acoustic recordings into gas flux based on a series of bubble amplitude and frequency thresholds. 

(Client: Pacific Geoscience Centre - Geological Survey of Canada)

Shallow water ice profiler

Shallow Water Ice Profiler Study

Analyzed lake and river ice thickness using a Shallow Water Ice Profiler Sonar (SWIPS) on a northern lake and a river in the Ungava Peninsula. Time series analysis was carried out on both upward looking sonar data sets and a report of the results were supplied to the client.

(Client: ASL Environmental Sciences for Environment Canada).

Poster presentation at CMOS conference 2012