New Approaches in Embedded Networked Sensing for Terrestrial Ecological Observatories

Abstract

Ecological observatories are a new class of multiuser research infrastructure designed and deployed to address a broad range of continental-scale ecological questions that until only recently were not technologically feasible. These highly networked ecological observatories, spread across the United States and featuring a diverse integration of programmable sensing capabilities and remote observational functions are expected to enable a transformation in the scope of environmental research, particularly in relation to understanding how global climate shifts and local and regional land use changes will quantitatively affect the composition, structure, and dynamics of the nation's ecosystems and services. Observing systems research focused on terrestrial ecology is one of four core research application fields of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, which operates an engineering and experimental test bed located at the James

Forest understory soil temperatures and heat flux calculated using a Fourier model and scaled using a digital camera

“…Visible light digital cameras are increasingly being used in environmental sensing (Hamilton et al, 2007;Morisette et al, 2009;Porter et al, 2009). Automatic image segmentation by thresholding is a commonly used image processing technique in ecological applications (Cescatti, 2007;Graham et al, 2009).…”

“…Digital cameras and data storage have become increasingly affordable and hardware more easily integrated into systems for ecological data collection (Hamilton et al, 2007;Rundel et al, 2009). Image analysis from environmental studies, for instance for plant phenology detection, has primarily involved simple color transformations and analysis .…”

Using soil sensing technology to examine interactions and controls between ectomycorrhizal growth and environmental factors on soil CO2 dynamics

“…The study was conducted at the University of California James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve, a Natural Reserve System field station of the University of California (www.jamesreserve.edu , Hamilton et al 2007). …”

Combining Unmanned Aerial Systems and Sensor Networks for Earth Observation

“…They are equipped with their own energy supply, sensors, and processing and data logging capacity. Sensor networks have been widely employed in environmental monitoring [2][3][4][5]. Having hundreds or thousands of small, inexpensive sensor nodes deployed in the environment, gathering high-resolution measurements during months or even years, opens many possibilities in a wide range of applications.…”