SiTS NSF-UKRI: Large Area Distributed Real Time Soil (DiRTS) Monitoring

该奖项是通过“土壤中的信号(SITS)”征集活动颁发的，这是美国国家科学基金会、美国农业部国家粮食和农业研究所(USDA NIFA)和以下联合王国研究与创新(UKRI)研究理事会之间的合作伙伴关系：1)自然环境研究理事会(NERC)，2)生物技术和生物科学研究理事会(BBSRC)，3)工程和物理科学研究理事会(EPSRC)和科学和技术设施理事会(STFC)。该研究项目是由美国塔夫茨大学与英国基尔大学和伯明翰大学的机构合作完成的。提高我们对土壤生态系统，特别是含氮物种，如氨和硝酸盐的动态的了解，对于改善土壤肥力，提高作物生产力，管理温室气体排放，保护水和环境至关重要。研究人员将开发下一代集成传感系统，用于现场、大面积、高分辨率监测氮素、土壤水分、钾和盐分。无线分布式实时土壤(DiRTS)监测网络由(1)模拟植物根状水分吸收的土壤传感器节点，(2)坚固的土壤氨、硝酸盐、钾、水分和盐分水平传感器，(3)用于读出和数字化的超低功耗电路体系结构，(4)远程无线数据通信，以及(5)用于绘制土壤氮、钾、盐分和水分水平的高级算法。该平台将解决我们在理解和控制未管理(例如森林)和管理(例如农业)土壤中的氮素物种方面的根本弱点。除了技术影响，拟议的研究工作将通过新的课程为本科生和研究生提供教育和培训机会。农民和其他土壤管理从业人员将通过公开提供的关于设计和部署无线分布式实时土壤监测平台的培训模块受益。DiRTS平台将做出几项显著的科学贡献：(1)模拟植物地上部分的自然水分吸收和蒸腾作用的目标土壤养分的连续毛细管驱动采样；(2)离子敏感电极，利用嵌入式海水淡化来提高选择性，并利用冗余和贝叶斯校准来提高灵敏度；(3)读出和数字化电路，工作在0.5V电源和纳瓦级功耗以下；(4)事件驱动采样和无线通信，使用基于可用功率和数据重要性的概率传感器调度；以及(5)基于统计机器学习的方法，用于从不规则采样数据生成高分辨率时空化学地图。所有技术都将通过在实验森林中的现场测量进行验证。具体地说，将进行实验，通过温室气体分析仪和使用DiRTS传感器网络的测绘来量化一氧化二氮的通量。该研究项目汇集了来自美国和英国的工程、生物地理科学和化学专家，他们在传感、电子学、微流体、生物地球化学、信号处理和传感器网络等相关领域具有丰富的背景和专业知识。DIRTS平台将促进我们对土壤氮素动态的了解，并提供一种方法来帮助管理这些动态，以实现更经济和环境可持续的农业实践。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was made through the "Signals in the Soil (SitS)" solicitation, a collaborative partnership between the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) and the following United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) research councils: 1) The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), 2) the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), 3) the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The research project is a collaboration between Tufts University in the U.S. and the U.K. institutions of Keele University and the University of Birmingham. Advancing our understanding of the soil ecosystem, especially the dynamics of nitrogen-containing species, such as ammonium and nitrate, is critical to improving soil fertility, increasing crop productivity, managing greenhouse gas fluxes, and protecting the water and environment. The researchers will development a next generation, integrated sensing system for in-field, large area, high resolution monitoring of nitrogen species, soil moisture, potassium, and salinity. The wireless Distributed Real Time Soil (DiRTS) monitoring network is comprised of (1) soil sensor nodes that mimic plant root-like water intake, (2) robust sensors for soil ammonium, nitrate, potassium, moisture, and salinity levels (3) ultra-low power circuit architectures for readout and digitization, (4) long range wireless data communication, and (5) advanced algorithms for mapping of soil nitrogen, potassium, salinity, and moisture levels. The platform will address fundamental weaknesses in our understanding and control of nitrogen species in both unmanaged (e.g. forest) and managed (e.g. agriculture) soils. Beyond the technical impact, the proposed research effort will offer education and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students through new curricula. Farmers and other soil management practitioners will benefit through publicly-available training modules on the design and deployment of the wireless Distributed Real Time Soil (DiRTS) monitoring platform. The DiRTS platform will make several notable scientific contributions: (1) Continuous capillary-driven sampling of the target soil nutrients mimicking the natural water intake by roots and transpiration through aboveground plant parts; (2) Ion-sensitive electrodes utilizing embedded desalination to improve selectivity, and utilizing redundancy and Bayesian calibration to improve sensitivity; (3) Circuits for readout and digitization operating below 0.5 V power supply and nanowatt level power dissipation; (4) Event-driven sampling and wireless communication using probabilistic sensor scheduling based on available power and data importance; and (5) State of the art statistical machine learning-based approaches for generating high resolution spatio-temporal chemical maps from irregularly sampled data. All technology will be validated using in-situ measurements in an experimental forest. Specifically, experiments will be performed to quantify nitrous oxide fluxes via a greenhouse gas analyzer and mapping using the DiRTS sensor network. This research project brings together experts in engineering, biogeosciences, and chemistry from the U.S. and U.K., with strong backgrounds and expertise in relevant areas of sensing, electronics, microfluidics, biogeochemistry, signal processing, and sensor networks. The DiRTS platform will advance our understanding of soil nitrogen dynamics and provide a method to help manage these dynamics for more economic and environmentally-sustainable agriculture practices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.