Biological Monitoring Services
Commodore’s team of biologists has more than 40 years of combined experience in biological monitoring and habitat assessment. The group specializes in performing aquatic surveys and benthic macroinvertebrate laboratory services, fish community studies in reservoirs and streams; and in animal tissue sample collection for contaminant analysis.
Biological Sampling Capabilities include:
- Fish Surveys to Determine Population Dynamics
- Benthic Macroinvertebrate Surveys and Laboratory Sample Processing
- Tissue Collection for Contaminant Analysis
- Habitat Assessments
- Wetlands Delineation and Surveys
- Waterfowl and Songbird Surveys
- Terrestrial Mammal Trapping and Sampling
- Riparian Habitat Assessment and Restoration
Our Benthic Laboratory is licensed to process radioactively-contaminated biological samples. The Benthic Laboratory has a current Tennessee Radioactive Material License, valid through 2016. This enables us to handle nuclides of atomic number 1-96 and special nuclear materials.
Benthic Laboratory Capabilities
Commodore’s benthic laboratory delivers expert taxonomy, consistent data quality, and outstanding report quality that can be directly compared with prior years for trend analyses. Commodore maintains an NQA-1 certified Quality Assurance Program to ensure client satisfaction that all our services and procedures are audit-worthy. We offer a reputation for providing outstanding client service; we are committed to understanding your needs and exceeding your expectations.
Historical data for the benthic macroinvertebrate community in streams on the Oak Ridge Reservation and of nearby reference streams has been collected since the mid-1980’s to meet requirements mandated by National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. During that time, Commodore aquatic biologists have processed and provided aquatic insect taxonomy and enumeration on most of those samples according to ORNL and TDEC procedures. Commodore personnel have been performing analyses of this insect community since the project inception in 1989. Our staff is knowledgeable and fully trained on TDEC, NPDES, and DOE requirements.
Commodore employs five fulltime biologists, three of whom are experienced aquatic biologists. Our aquatic biologists have more than 40 years of combined experience providing benthic macroinvertebrate taxonomy services on samples collected from East Tennessee watersheds including Melton and Bethel Valleys, Upper East Fork Poplar Creek, Bear Creek, and White Oak Creek. Our aquatic biologists are intimately familiar with the aquatic fauna of these watersheds, having personally picked and identified literally tens of thousands of individuals from thousands of samples. We also maintain an extensive reference collection of macroinvertebrates collected from these very watersheds since 1989, and frequently update the collection as necessary.
Commodore also retains the professional services of a recognized expert in aquatic insect taxonomy who has 30+ years of experience with East Tennessee fauna. He has worked for the State of Tennessee Division of Water Quality sampling and identifying samples of aquatic insects throughout eastern Tennessee, and he provides consulting services to Commodore, particularly involving the identification of aquatic midges (Chironomidae) and Oligochaeta. He also verifies identities of individuals added to the reference collection.