Today@Dal

Aquatic Ecology students in BIOA3006 received field assistant certification from Environment Canada as part of the Canadian Aquatic Bio-Monitoring Network. This training certifies that our students are trained at the national standard for river bio-monitoring techniques that are used to assess multiple parameters that measure river health. This certification was made possible by the training that Senior Instructor Scott Jeffrey underwent with Environment Canada to become certified as a field trainer for the CABIN program.

Scott incorporated the CABIN techniques into the field course activities of BIOA 3006 and taught our students how to properly conduct these sampling techniques. Two Environment Canada biologists joined our students in a laboratory that measured the health of the Salmon River, and by demonstrating their techniques in the field, our students successfully received this national certification.

Students successfully demonstrated their ability to measure river slope, water chemistry, habitat flora, benthic macroinvertebrate collection and identification, river velocity and depth. Congratulations to all involved for successfully incorporating national certification into our BIOA3006 course components.