Automated-Minirhizotron and Arrayed Rhizosphere-Soil Sensors [A-MARSS]

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This award supports the development of a robotic minirhizotron system and its integration with existing technologies into a network of environmental monitoring probes (nitrate, carbon dioxide, water, temperature, microbial composition) that can both receive instructions and transmit data and images remotely using new wireless technologies. Soil ecology has generally consisted of individual static or harvest measurements that lack adequate small-scale, rapid replication. The new instrumentation and integration approaches should provide a quantum leap in the ability to monitor and describe small-scale phenomena and integrate a large number of measurements both spatially and temporally into integrated complex mechanics of soil ecology. The project team consists of ecologists, environmental scientists, engineers, and computer scientists all working to develop the new instruments and integrate the array of parameters measured. All measurements are being designed to measure remotely, allowing for the observation of events as they occur. This project integrates prior work from programs in soil biocomplexity, technique development, and wireless engineering technologies. The project will take place at three locations (1) the James Reserve, a University of California Natural Reserve System site with an existing website and remote-controlled data access system used by schools nationally, (2) an agricultural technology testbed near Palmdale, CA, where pollution sensors are being tested, and (3) a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, near Albuquerque, focused on drought studies using the rain-out shelters.