Field Notes

<--2021-12-02 09:00:00 | 2022-01-19 12:25:00-->
Other sites visited today: Hill Slough | Tonzi

Vaira: 2022-01-06 14:25:00 (DOY 6)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Dennis

Summary: Power outages, Regular data collection/cleaning, cows nearby, cows have trampled soil be fence and under the radiometers, corner brace needs fixing, changed one FD chamber from 10min to 5min interval to match the other FD

2022-01-06
Vaira

Dennis and I arrived at 14:25 PST. It was partly overcast and warming up after the foggy morning. There was not much of a breeze and it smelled like wood smoke the whole time we were there, probably from people’s fireplaces. We could hear shots from the nearby gun and rod club. The road had quite a few puddles and the watering hole looked almost full. The grass looked nicely green and short outside of the enclosure, but inside the enclosure some of the grass has overgrown the wooden boardwalks we laid on the ground.

There were cows to our west and northwest by the edge of the grassland, but you can tell they’ve been by our enclosure. The northwest corner brace had been knocked loose and the soil by the gate and under the radiometers have been trampled, so the radiometers are seeing part grass and part red clay. Dennis fixed the corner brace temporarily but it probably needs more attention another time.

Dennis asked how old our fire extinguisher was and whether or not it needed to be replaced. I’m not sure how old it is but the pressure valve is still in the green zone.

I downloaded met, cam, and USB GHG data. I had trouble downloading the soil CO2 data from the CR23X. I could only collect data until 2021-361, then it would give an error message about how the connection failed. I tried connecting to it directly using the USB-serial cable through the RS-232 port (after disconnecting the other cable), but I had the same issues. I unplugged and replugged the 23x power, but still got the same result. I'm not sure if the data is missing or if the data is all there but I couldn't download it for some reason. I re-attached the CS I/O cable to the 23X.

I used sneakernet to download the two FD chambers and to clear their memories. I noticed FD sn FD20180047 only had about 8% of its memory used, while the other FD chamber had about 16% of its memory used. Both data files had data starting from the same date, but sn FD20180047 was only sampling at 10min intervals. I changed sn FD20180047 to sample at 5min intervals which I think should match the other FD chamber here. I cleared the memories of both FD chambers.

Dennis cleaned the radiometers and took veg height and the manual well measurements. We skipped the pond since the road was pretty wet. He skipped spectra since the light was changing a lot.

We turned the electric fence back on before leaving.

Vaira LI-7500 readings:
CO2 415ppm
H2O 530ppm
T 16.0C
P 99.7kPa
SS 98

About five periods of power outage coincident with multiple days of low light. The soil co2 system seemed to suffer the most - maybe short in that line? Interesting also that the phenocam didn't loose its date with long outages.

We left at 15:25 PST.

Veg Height (cm): Tape measure from ground to top of plant - Heavy grazing outside of enclosure
3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 7, 2, 6, 3, 4, 6, 3, avg = 3.5, stdev = 1.64

Field Data

No tank data

Well Depth

Date	Location	Depth (feet)
2022-01-06	TZ_floor	27.7
2022-01-06	TZ_tower	31.1
2022-01-06	TZ_road	35.1
2022-01-06	VR_well	53

mode = both
Moisture Point Probes TZ
Array ( [0] => Tower [1] => Soil_Transect_4 [2] => Soil_Transect_3 [3] => Soil_Transect_2 [4] => Soil_Transect_1 [5] => SoilCO2_West_A [6] => SoilCO2_West_B [7] => SoilCO2_West_C )

Date	DOY	Rep	Depth	Tower	Soil_Transect_4	Soil_Transect_3	Soil_Transect_2	Soil_Transect_1	SoilCO2_West_A	SoilCO2_West_B	SoilCO2_West_C	Avg	Spacial Count	Measurement Count
2022-01-06	6	0	0-15cm	41.7	28.5	27.6	22.9	26.7	37.6	36.1	34.3
2022-01-06	6	0	15-30cm	39.6	35.9	35	34.4	27.1	32.6	29.2	39.6
2022-01-06	6	0	30-45cm	34.1	38	36.6	36.3	36.6	37.7	41.3	38.8
2022-01-06	6	0	45-60cm	42.3	34.8	48.3	49.1	41.4	46.6	50.6	48
2022-01-06	6	1	0-15cm	40.8	27.9	20.9	23.2	21.7	36.7	35.5	34.3
2022-01-06	6	1	15-30cm	38.4	35.3	34.7	34.4	27.1	32.6	28.3	34.4
2022-01-06	6	1	30-45cm	34.3	37.7	36.8	35.2	36	36.3	40.7	38
2022-01-06	6	1	45-60cm	40.4	35.1	45.1	48.8	41.4	45.1	50.3	46.8
2022-01-06	6	2	0-15cm	42.6	27.3	28.5	23.2	19.1	36.7	36.4	34.1
2022-01-06	6	2	15-30cm	40.8	35.3	34.4	33.8	27.1	32.3	29.2	34.1
2022-01-06	6	2	30-45cm	33.5	37.1	36.3	34.1	36.6	36.8	41.3	37.7
2022-01-06	6	2	45-60cm	43.4	34.2	44.5	48.6	40.8	45.4	50.6	47.1
2022-01-06	6	Avg	0-15cm	41.7	27.9	25.67	23.1	22.5	37	36	34.23	31.01	8	24
2022-01-06	6	Avg	15-30cm	39.6	35.5	34.7	34.2	27.1	32.5	28.9	36.03	33.57	8	24
2022-01-06	6	Avg	30-45cm	33.97	37.6	36.57	35.2	36.4	36.93	41.1	38.17	36.99	8	24
2022-01-06	6	Avg	45-60cm	42.03	34.7	45.97	48.83	41.2	45.7	50.5	47.3	44.53	8	24

No VR Moisture Point data found

No TZ grass heigth found

No VR grass heigth found

Tree DBH

Date	Tag#	Reading (mm)

No water potential data found

No VR Grass Biomass data found

No VR OakLeaves Biomass data found

No VR PineNeedles Biomass data found

6 photos found

20220106VR_Dennis.jpg ( 2022-01-06 15:21:05 ) Full size: 1920x1440
Dennis taking veg height measurements

20220106VR_Grass.jpg ( 2022-01-06 14:32:27 ) Full size: 1920x887
Grass inside the enclosure is taller than the grass outside

20220106VR_RadSoil.jpg ( 2022-01-06 15:20:29 ) Full size: 1440x1920
Cows have trampled under the radiometers so the sensors are seeing party soil part grass