Canadian Water Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life - Dissolved Gas Supersaturation

issolved gas supersaturation (DGS) is a condition that occurs when the partial pressures of atmospheric gases in solution exceed their respective partial pressures in the atmosphere. Individual atmospheric dissolved gases (oxygen, nitrogen, and trace gases such as argon and carbon dioxide) can often be supersaturated without adverse effects on aquatic and marine organisms. When the sum of the partial pressures of all dissolved gases exceeds atmospheric pressure, however, there is the potential for gas bubbles to develop in water and in the aquatic organisms that inhabit the water. This causes a condition known as gas bubble trauma (GBT).