Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Vaira

Tonzi: 2024-05-08 11:45:00 (DOY 129)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Daphne

Summary: Attack of the cows part three - lots of new damage, leaves still look poorly, broke theta probe while reinstalling SHF plate, Floor well hiccup

Tonzi
2024-05-08

Daphne and I arrived at about 11:45PDT. It was warm and dry with a gusty wind from the north. On the way in from Sacramento we could see snow in the Sierras and a fire burning in the foothills to the east (I can’t find any news on the fire). There was a bit of rain last weekend and the puddles on the road have returned or gotten bigger. The tree leaves still look much less dense than usual. Most of the leaves look damaged – curled or holed like they have been damaged by disease. It was hard to find leaves for left water potential. Lots of yellow dandelion flowers. The soil was damp where I had to dig.

The cows have attacked again! I had a long list of fixing things found broken last time and improvements to make but threw those out as soon as I saw the new damage. They chewed a number of power lines at the tower shorting power and popping the breaker – no power since the 2nd (five day gap).
Broken things:
Tower electric fence
Daphne repaired all the electric wires and then we ran a strand of barbed wire all the way around between the two electrified lines. We added one fence post but probably should add several more. There is a chance of the electrified lines shorting with the barbed wire. The fence charger seemed strong but we could replace it and the battery.

Power line to OSU SP2
Not fixed. I disconnected it in the solar power box. We need some new pluggable strips and additional breakers so that tower eddy can continue even if the cows short the ground sensors.

Power line from fmet box to floor RH/T fan
Replaced but it has a screw terminal in it. Three lines from RH/T post should go in conduit.

Another unknown power line at the tower – black Belden cable with multiple screw terminals.
I disconnected the chewed part I think. Need to figure out where this goes.

One of the SHF cables I spliced last time
Redid the splice should be soldered

Both of the SoilVue cables at the fmet boxes – 5 conductors and braided shield completely severed
These cables seem to have some circuitry in the end (cable conductors don’t match pigtails). I spliced the cable to the one to the south with a screw terminal (five wires) and it seemed to work. I brought in the cable to the one near the Moister Point probe to solder in the lab.

DC-DC converter at fmet – probably burned by short in SoilVue or fan cables.
I replaced this with one from the toolbox electronics bag.

Unused AC lines on SIF trailer
I fixed one with a mechanical plug on the end cutting off the chewed part. The other line with a molded plug might be okay but has some chew marks. I removed both from the battery box and tried to tuck them into the trailer farther.

Connectors for SIF solar panels pulled apart disconnection all panels.
The wires were pulled out of two connectors. I fixed these and decided there was only one way for them all to go back together so plugged them in. The charge controller went from reporting 0A to 12A. Daphne re-taped the connections.

Electric fence around soil CO2
Daphne fixed the wires but the battery, charger and solar panel are some or all broken so no power.

SHF cable from OSU SP1 box – completely gone
This was a six conductor cable carrying voltages from two SHF plates. Have to replace this next time.

Some old unused cables
We should pull these and use them to fix things. Blk/wht, Red/wht twisted pairs I think. Could use for the SHF plates probably.

All the cables at the Tree1 FD chamber
The cows obviously laid down here and ate everything including most of the 10m FD chamber cable. The chamber was tossed to the side. The power line to the other FD was broken. I removed everything I could and tried to stuff the rest back in the box. I will try to run a new line just for the FD chamber next time. I removed both FD chambers (Tree1 sn FD20200001 and Open sn FD20190027) and their cables (remains).

Some of the cables at the solar panel – though might have been chewed previously
Power line to the FD chambers was broken. Some of the solar panel lines were chewed. The charger controller seemed to indicate the batteries were okay – green LED I think. Might replace all this – new panels? Off line for now.

SoilVue and SWP cables at OSU SP1
The SoilVue cable was obviously chewed and I removed it for repair in the lab. The METER SWP sensor sn G20007096 was also not reporting data so I dug it up for testing in the lab.

OSU SP1 net radiometer cable – might still be working
Need to check the data. I’ll try to grab the data over the cell modem. It was previously chewed but has been okay. I added some cable ties to make it tight to the ground and post.

Some of the OSU SP1 soil moisture cables – probably weren’t working anyway.
I need to look at this data but probably should just remove all of these.

Tree 102 manual dendrometer
The Vernier scale dendrometer was bumped and partially broken. It needs to be fixed next time.

Leaf water potential table dumped again
Upside down on the ground and full of water. The pole saw in the tank chain seemed undisturbed.

While digging a hole to reinstall the SHF plate sn 000139 that got chewed last time I cut the wire for Theta probe 2 sn 31/100 and almost a set of TC wires. I removed the Theta probe for repair. It was installed vertically with its top just below the surface. The tines were 16-22 cm below the surface.

After I restored power to the tower I collected the tower top data, a little gusty so I didn’t dawdle
The Tower read: 418.0ppm CO2, 307.3mmol/m3, 21.6C, 98.7kPa, 103.2SS
Daphne did the Moisture Point measurements, the wells, and read the dendrometers. She serviced the Zcams. Zcam1 was tilted to the south a bit. Zcam2 was unplugged and only had one day of images on the card. She collected the Floor flux.
The Floor read: 415.9ppm CO2, 418.8mmol/m3, 23.9C, 98.8kPa, 101.9SS

When she connected to the Floor well it was reading NAN. Cycling power on the sensor, and the data logger didn’t work. She connected it to the IRT CR1000 we had with us to reinstall and was able to talk to the well sensor. Reconnected it to the CR200 and it was working again. Maybe just a bad connection somewhere. No data since April 26.

We left around 17:00 PDT

Field Data

No tank data

Well Depth

Date	Location	Depth (feet)
2024-05-08	VR_well	52.21
2024-05-08	TZ_floor	18.28
2024-05-08	TZ_tower	22.34
2024-05-08	TZ_road	27.4

No TZ Moisture Point data found

No VR Moisture Point data found

No TZ grass heigth found

Grass Height VR 15

Date	Height reps (cm)															Location	Average	Samp	STDEV
2024-05-08	29	69	76	67	70	65	94	83	92	71	77	86	73	64	100	GH_ALL

Tree DBH

Date	Tag#	Reading (mm)
2024-05-08	1	23.3
2024-05-08	2	16.9
2024-05-08	245	11.4
2024-05-08	3	9.2
2024-05-08	4	11.4
2024-05-08	5	20.5
2024-05-08	6	8.8
2024-05-08	7	16.7
2024-05-08	72	9.9
2024-05-08	79	8.3

Water Potential - mode: raw

Time	Species	Tree	readings (bar)
2024-05-08 13:15:00	OAK	102	-7	-8	-7
2024-05-08 13:15:00	OAK	231	-22
2024-05-08 13:15:00	OAK	249	-11
2024-05-08 13:15:00	OAK	250	-18
2024-05-08 13:15:00	OAK	92	-22	-23	-26

No TZ Grass Biomass data found

No TZ OakLeaves Biomass data found

No TZ PineNeedles Biomass data found

4 photos found

20240508TZ_YellowDandelions.jpg ( 2024-05-08 11:59:18 ) Full size: 1920x1440
Lots of dandelions carpeting the ground

20240508TZ_Larkspur.jpg ( 2024-05-08 12:43:19 ) Full size: 1440x1920
Larkspur flower. Apparently toxic to cows if they eat too much.

20240508TZ_Smoke.jpg ( 2024-05-08 10:39:03 ) Full size: 1920x1440
Smoke from a fire in the foothills near Tonzi. Luckily the wind was blowing the smoke away from us.