Routinely, we have treated land segments as silos and gravitated our perspectives towards fluxes that are directed upward and downward. If you have ever had a leaky sink, one way to fix it would be to put a bucket underneath. But wouldn’t it make more sense to find and fix the core problem that is causing the leak? Nature perhaps is similar to the leaky sink, but on a far more complex scale, and the core problems are often from many different sources and sinks. So, what cause(s) our control volume to leak and unable to conserve energy?
Cities have a complex mix of land uses, from commercial districts with dining and shops to residential neighborhoods linked by travel corridors, as well as industrial areas such as ports and factories. All of these different land uses lead to a diversity of urban sources that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Direct measurements and analysis of these species over time helps us understand human interactions with climate and air pollution.
Carbon dynamics and greenhouse fluxes in a Florida native rangeland. The Science: Grazing lands, including both rangeland and pastureland, cover about 10.7 Mha in Southeastern United States; have a significant… More
The encroachment of woody species such as mangrove invading coastal marshes is expected to change the carbon storage in the soils and biomass as well as exchanges with the atmosphere.
Nestled between the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula, hidden behind the raging everlasting Tacoma traffic jam and interrupted-service WA-State ferries, is the Viking town of Poulsbo, WA. And in the… More
Greenhouse gas flux responses to wetland drying and vegetation succession in the Kenai Lowlands, southcentral Alaska
It’s not often that you get to see a total solar eclipse from your own back yard. It’s even rarer when your eddy covariance flux site, 300 miles away, is also in the path of totality. That’s just the situation we found ourselves in. On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse crossed our research site in the Nebraska SandHills (US-SdH). Being a long-time amateur astronomer, it presented an opportunity that we just couldn’t miss.
This Tech blog post describes two approaches that can help you collect high-quality data and minimize data gaps: automated data visualization for post-visit data QA/QC, and taking advantage of digital notes for field work and data processing.
The following is a description of the workflow that we use at the ChEAS (Chequamegon Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study) core-site cluster based at the University of Wisconsin to create real-time plots of our data. It allows us to look for inconsistencies and changes in data over time.
Due to COVID-19, the entire AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) has been working from home since March 16 following shelter-in-place orders from public health authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about how we are adapting.