Mini-RWIS PILOT PROJECT (2020 \u2013 2022): A Public-Private Partnership Demonstration Project Between Campbell Scientific, Inc. and the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities in Collaboration With the University of Alaska Fairbanks (Institute of Northern Engineering) and Geo-Watersheds Scientific

In 2019, Campbell Scientific, a manufacturer of research-grade data acquisition systems entered a public/private partnership project with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) to demonstrate the scalable (mini) Road Weather Information System (RWIS) concept. This partnership included research personnel from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to assess the performance of the mini-RWIS stations with the goal of providing feedback to ADOT&PF regarding the performance of the stations and the feasibility of adding the mini-RWIS station concept as a cost-effective option for of filling gaps in the Alaskan RWIS network. Seven standard mini-RWIS stations were assessed based on the performance of the atmospheric sensor data (including wind speed and direction, air temperature and relative humidity, and road surface temperature), reliable delivery of camera images, power performance, and cellular communication performance. They performed well throughout the study and results show that a Public/ Private Partnership with emerging technologies can be a positive avenue to pilot systems to use within DOT system where performance is unknown at the time of trial

Organic sediment pulses impact rivers across multiple levels of ecological organization

Sedimentation is a pervasive environmental pressure affecting rivers globally. Headwaters draining catchments rich in organic soils (i.e. peat) are particularly vulnerable to enhanced sedimentation caused by land management and environmental change, yet many of the ecological consequences of peat deposition are poorly understood. We conducted a BACI experiment in two rivers draining blanket peatland in northern England to test the effect of sediment inputs on water quality, macroinvertebrate drift, macroinvertebrate community structure, and ecosystem metabolism. Sediment addition increased concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, total oxidised nitrogen and suspended sediment concentration in rivers, and intensified the total drift of macroinvertebrates particularly at night. By contrast the abundance and richness of benthic macroinvertebrates was unaffected, except for declines in Coleoptera abundance in one river. The gross primary production of both rivers was strongly suppressed as the benthos was smothered by sediment. Community respiration also declined, albeit by different extents in the two rivers. Our experiment revealed that short-term pulses of organic sediment in rivers can have broad effects on water quality and biota, from influences on the dispersal of individual organisms to the modification of ecosystem processes. Organic sediments therefore warrant further examination, to include longer observation periods and more sites. It is particularly important to clarify the extent to which impacts extend from peatland streams into larger rivers downstream. Such studies are necessary to inform global management efforts to restore the integrity of river ecosystems under a range of water and biodiversity policy mechanisms

Productivity and evapotranspiration of two contrasting semiarid ecosystems following the 2011 global carbon land sink anomaly

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Global carbon balances are increasingly affected by large fluctuations in productivity occurring throughout semiarid regions. Recent analyses found a large C uptake anomaly in 2011 in arid and semiarid regions of the southern hemisphere. Consequently, we compared C and water fluxes of two distinct woody ecosystems (a Mulga (Acacia) woodland and a Corymbia savanna) between August 2012 and August 2014 in semiarid central Australia, demonstrating that the 2011 anomaly was short-lived in both ecosystems. The Mulga woodland was approximately C neutral but with periods of significant uptake within both years. The extreme drought tolerance of Acacia is presumed to have contributed to this. By contrast, the Corymbia savanna was a very large net C source (130 and 200gCm-2yr-1 in average and below average rainfall years, respectively), which is likely to have been a consequence of the degradation of standing, senescent biomass that was a legacy of high productivity during the 2011 anomaly. The magnitude and temporal patterns in ecosystem water-use efficiencies (WUE), derived from eddy covariance data, differed across the two sites, which may reflect differences in the relative contributions of respiration to net C fluxes across the two ecosystems. In contrast, differences in leaf-scale measures of WUE, derived from 13C stable isotope analyses, were apparent at small spatial scales and may reflect the different rooting strategies of Corymbia and Acacia trees within the Corymbia savanna. Restrictions on root growth and infiltration by a siliceous hardpan located below Acacia, whether in the Mulga woodland or in small Mulga patches of the Corymbia savanna, impedes drainage of water to depth, thereby producing a reservoir for soil moisture storage under Acacia while acting as a barrier to access of groundwater by Corymbia trees in Mulga patches, but not in the open Corymbia savanna