On Monday, August 26, 2024, a team of researchers from Trent University’s Frost/Xenopoulos freshwater ecology lab (frostlab.ca) deployed a sensor buoy in a deep part of the lake in the north end. The state-of-the-art sensor buoy will help them monitor our lake ecosystem and provide valuable data to researchers.
Research in the Frost Lab focuses on how nutrients affect animals and their foodweb interactions in aquatic ecosystems. Most of our work involves ‘ecological stoichiometry’, which is a way of thinking about the effects of nutrient ratios in the environment. The Frost lab has used this perspective to study how nutrient availability affects a diverse collection of aquatic life from aquatic plants and algae to mayflies and zooplankton. Much of our current research now examines animal responses (biochemical, physiological and population-level) to interactions among nutritional and environmental stressors in the laboratory and in the field.
The deployment was facilitated by Jack Millar, a Catchacoma cottager and Trent University student working in the Frost/Xenopoulos lab. Jack is also a CCA Board member and lake steward working with Ted Spence. While out on the water launching the buoy, Jack took some water samples from the lake to take back to the lab for testing. Results from the data collected will be available to us at a future date.
Dr Maggie Xenopoulos let us know that:
Buoys are floating sensor platforms that can hold autonomous instruments that measure conditions in and on the lakes. Depending on their configuration, buoys can monitor dozens of weather and water parameters, including physical conditions such as water temperature, wind speed, and turbidity, as well as chemical and biological parameters like dissolved oxygen and nitrates. We are currently testing these platforms to ensure that we can deploy, secure, and retrieve them safely in the lake, in preparation for a full deployment next year.
Thank you Jack and team for helping us safeguard the environment and ensure a healthier lake system for future generations.
To find out more about the buoy, visit: www.nexsens.com/products/data-buoys/cb-450
First photo: Ted Spence, Jack Millar, Sherryann Prowell, James Kelley and Vedanti Ghatwala pose with the sensor buoy before launch.
