PDK Projects, Inc. was incorporated in Manitoba, Canada in December 1997 and registered in British Columbia in July 1999 and in Alberta in June 2001. Its vision is promoting the use of rapid analysis tools for decision making in agriculture and the environment for the betterment of quality of life and environmental health.
Mission
Meeting client needs in monitoring and protecting environmental quality through new and innovative applications of near-infrared spectroscopy and assisting in the evaluation and effective application of the technology to other needs.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Wetlands
Issue
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Permanently reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy, industrial, and transportation sectors in Canada and globally is the only certain way to reduce global climate change, reduce smog, improve air quality and human health, and address crucial ecological issues. Nevertheless, there is a subsidiary role for carbon sinks as credits in the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.
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Wetlands cover approximately 14% of Canada`s land surface and contain over 150 Gts C, about 60% of Canada`s C stock. Canada contains 24% of the world`s wetlands. Globally, there are about 760 Gts C as CO2 in the atmosphere, 800 Gts as organic matter in vegetation, and 1650 Gts as organic matter in soils. Quite likely the role of agricultural and forest ecosystems in supplying C credits in Canada is modest compared with the quantities of C that wetlands store.
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The use of C sinks for ``credits`` is hampered by the lack of analytical techniques for accurate analysis of C that are capable of analyzing both quantity and quality and are sufficiently cost-effective and practical to operate on a landscape basis.
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There are several aspects for which improved analytical methods for C are required:
- Monitoring terrestrial and wetland ecosystems for their responses as sinks or sources to global climate change and human activity
- Estimating C inventories in wetlands to enable stewardship of their role as sinks.
Purpose of R&D
Exploring the feasibility of using NIRS as a rapid, potentially field-portable, cost-effective technology for the analysis of carbon quantity and quality in wetland soils
Project 1
Evaluation of near-infrared spectroscopy as a rapid method for estimating the carbon stored per unit area in a wetland.
Funding
This project is funded by the Province of Manitoba Climate Change Action Fund.
Purpose of the Project
This project involves the taking of cores from three representative biological communities in Delta Marsh, MB, down to the substrate below the wetland. The amount of total carbon per unit area of wetland surface will be estimated using NIRS.
Duration
April - December 2002
Report
Evaluation of near-infrared spectroscopy as a rapid method for estimating the carbon stored per unit area in a wetland. Final Report to the Manitoba Climate Change Action Fund on Project #15, December, 49 pp.
Executive Summary
The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a rapid, cost-effective method using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for estimating the quantity of total C per unit area (g cm-2) in a lacustrine wetland. Three representative sites in Delta Marsh, on the shore of Lake Manitoba, Manitoba were sampled, Crescent Pond, a small isolated, sheltered, clear-water pond; Eaglenest, a larger bay unconnected to Lake Manitoba; and Cadham Bay, a large, deeper, turbid-water bay connected to the lake. Duplicate cores were collected at each site for a total of 6 cores. Cores ranged in length from 52 to 75 cm long and, at least in Cadham Bay, are believed to contain most of the carbon accumulated in the 2500 y geological history of the marsh. The 1-cm thick sections of the cores, comprising the samples in the study, were scanned with two NIR instruments with differing optical systems, data collection time, wavelength range, and field-portability, the Foss NIRSystems Inc. model 6500 visible/NIR scanning spectrophotometer and the Zeiss Corona spectrometer. Samples were scanned field-moist (``as is``) and dry. Principal component analysis of the spectral data indicated qualitative differences in the samples among sites that are postulated to be due to variation in the influences of terrestriality vs limnology on the sites.
Calibrations were developed for moisture between the spectral data and gravimetric moisture determined in the samples and for C in the dried and field-moist samples. The NIR-predicted values for moisture agreed 93 and 94% with moisture determined by oven drying the samples for the 6500 and Corona instruments, respectively. These calibrations were judged using statistical criteria to be ``excellent``. The NIR-predicted values for C in the dried samples agreed 95 and 90% with the C values obtained by combustion for the 6500 and Corona instruments, respectively. For field-moist samples, the NIR-predicted values for C agreed 86 and 87% with the C contents calculated on a wet weight basis from the combustion reference data for the 6500 and Corona, respectively. These calibrations are judged to be ``successful`` to ``excellent``.
The total C contained in the six cores determined using the 6500 was 2.51, 2.79, 2.99, 2.49, 3.24, and 2.87 g cm-2. Variability in core length affected the total C. Total C calculated for slices 2 to 51 cm, common to all cores, was 2.42, 2.43, and 2.06 g cm-2 for Crescent Pond, Eaglenest and Cadham Bay, respectively. Crescent Pond and Eaglenest were highly similar in C profiles; Cadham Bay contained lower C content above 50 cm. The results for C per unit area for each core were very similar between the 6500 and Corona NIR instruments. The coefficient of variability (deviation as a % of the mean) for total C between the two instruments for the six cores varied from 0.05 to 2.74 %.
Near-infrared spectroscopy is a feasible method for the determination of C inventories in wetlands when combined with effective sampling of the full depth of the organic C layer, appropriate sampling of spatial variability in the depth of the organic layer within representative habitats of the wetland, and measurement of areal extent of the representative habitats. It is expected from the literature that the technique can be utilized in peatlands as well as in lacustrine wetlands. Field-portability such as available in the Zeiss Corona can further reduce cost, time and effort, and increase efficiency.
Hog Manure
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Sewage Sludge and Biosolids
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