2 research outputs found
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An underground, wireless, open-source, low-cost system for monitoring oxygen, temperature, and soil moisture
The use of wireless sensor networks to measure soil parameters eliminates the need to remove sensors for field operations, such as tillage, thus allowing long-term measurements without multiple disturbances to soil structure. Wireless sensors also reduce above-ground cables and the risk of undesired equipment damage and potential data loss. However, implementing wireless sensor networks in field studies usually requires advanced and costly engineering knowledge. This study presents a new underground, wireless, open-source, low-cost system for monitoring soil oxygen, temperature, and soil moisture. The process of system design, assembly, programming, deployment, and power management is presented. The system can be left underground for several years without the need to change the battery. Emphasis was given on modularity so that it can be easily duplicated or changed if needed and deployed without previous engineering knowledge. Data from this type of system have a wide range of applications, including precision agriculture and high-resolution modelling
Delta‐Flux: An Eddy Covariance Network for a Climate‐Smart Lower Mississippi Basin
Networks of remotely monitored research sites are increasingly the tool used to study regional agricultural impacts on carbon and water fluxes. However, key national networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network and AmeriFlux lack contributions from the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB), a highly productive agricultural area with opportunities for soil carbon sequestration through conservation practices. The authors describe the rationale to create the new Delta‐Flux network, which will coordinate efforts to quantify carbon and water budgets at seventeen eddy covariance flux tower sites in the LMRB. The network structure will facilitate climate‐smart management strategies based on production‐scale and continuous measurements of carbon and water fluxes from the landscape to the atmosphere under different soil and water management conditions. The seventeen instrumented field sites are expected to monitor fluxes within the most characteristic landscapes of the target area: row‐crop fields, pasture, grasslands, forests, and marshes. The network participants are committed to open collaboration and efficient regionalization of site‐level findings to support sustainable agricultural and forestry management and conservation of natural resources