Environmental Measurement Laboratory

Abstract

Measurements are the sole judge of scientific truth and provide access to unpredictable information, enabling the characterization and monitoring of complex terrestrial systems. Based on lectures and field- and laboratory training, the students learn to apply modern methods to determine forest inventory parameters and to measure subsurface properties and processes.

Objective

The students will be able to: - explain measurement principles that are used for characterization of landscapes and terrestrial systems - select appropriate measurement methods and sampling design to quantify key variables and processes above ground and in the subsurface - deploy sensors in the field - interpret collected laboratory and field data and report main conclusions deduced from measurements

Content

Week 1: Plant-Soil interactions – short introduction before sensor demonstration and installation in forest lab; Scholander pressure bomb (suction in leaves); LiCOR soil chamber Weeks 2 to 6 - Experimental Methods for Soil Health Assessment - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Week 2: Lecture on soil health and soil indicators; defining measurable soil health indicators for case studies for different soil threats and climate regions Week 3: Short lecture on sampling, sensors and data logging; preparing sensors and data loggers in the lab; measurements on water content and temperature in the lab Week 4: Short introduction on field installation; sensor installation at field site Hönggerberg Week 5: Lecture on geophysical methods on subsurface characterization: basic principles of ERT, GPR, and EM; planning of field experiment to assess soil health Week 6: Short introduction on data analysis; field sampling and conducting field experiment to assess soil health Week 7: Analysis of experimental data and soil health assessment; poster presentation and discussion - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Week 8: Lecture on plant soil relationship; connecting information below and above ground – data analysis Weeks 9 and 10: Forest characterization/ inventory: Principles of LiDAR; structures and features of the tree crowns, size/volume of the leaf area tree positions and diameters at breast height Weeks 11 and 12: Eddy covariance methods -Principles for field measurement of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and energy exchange between terrestrial surfaces and the atmosphere; Analysis of measured time series to determine evaporation rate and CO2-fluxes Week 13: Swiss Soil Monitoring networks – Monitoring of soil water content and potential; climate change and droughts Week 14: Global data – Global modeling and data interpretation; SoilGrids and OpenLandMap; exercises on Budyko analysis

Resources