Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: Gilbert Tract | East End | Vaira
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Tonzi: 2025-05-28 11:00:00 (DOY 148)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others: Kuno

Summary: Kuno's last round of chamber fluxes for a while, standard data collection, trouble getting all the GPS data, zcam1 tilted, ground IRT out of mount, pressure bomb leaking, Moisture Point dying

Tonzi
2025-05-28

Kuno and I arrived at about 12:00 PDT. It was clear, sunny and mild with a nice breeze. The grass is almost entirely dry and brown. There is a scattering of yellow and purple flowers. The trees look good. The pond is shrinking. The cows were resting it the shade.

This is Kuno's last field day for a while. He goes home to Estonia this weekend but will be back for a field campaign in July. I got some instructions on how he is making the measurements that I will write up. He did his usual rounds with not much change in the fluxes. At the end waiting for me to finish up he did some fluxes of twigs with leaves. Seems like the leaves are emitting CH4 but not the stems or trunks.

I had trouble collecting the data from Housen's GPS units. I managed to get all the data including three of the five days I missed last time from the 04 unit which is over by the Floor tower. But I was confused on which unit was which for a bit and restarted the wrong one. I saw 03 connected to the wifi at first but couldn't get 01 (Tower top) ever or 03 (zcam 1) to connect later.

I collected the tower top data. All seemed well. I cleaned the phenocam window inside and out.
The 7500 read: 428.9ppm CO2, 486.1mmol/m3 H2O, 24.1C, 98.7kPa, 104.3SS - 105.7 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 2.01ppm CH4, 64.4RSSI - 86.3 after cleaning
There was some bird poop on the lower mirror but the edge was clean enough I guess. The wash reservoir was full. I cleaned the radiometers.

I collected the Floor flux, well and tree bole temps - all seemed well.
The 7500 read: 429.6ppm CO2, 509.1mmol/m3 H2O, 29.0C, 98.9kPa, 98.2SS - 99.7 after cleaning
The 7700 read: 1.99ppm CH4, 47.0RSSI - 78.5 after cleaning
I topped up the wash reservoir.

I did midday water potential. I think the twig gasket on the pressure bomb is wearing out and beginning to leak. I need to check how to replace it - I think there are spares.

I did the manual soil moisture, read the dendrometers and did the well depths. I think this might be the last time I do the Moiture Point measurements - the last few probes had bad top level values that makes me think the cable or some internal switch is damaged. I can test it in the lab I think.

I serviced the zcams. Zcam1 was tilted to the south a little bit - righted.

The ground IRT was dangling but still generally pointed down. I put it back in its usual place.

I reconnected OSU SP1 to the radio that I had disconnected last time. I wanted to test the soil water potential sensor here with a new program but ran out of time. I can test with remote desktop for next time.

We left the electric fences off to reduce fire hazard.

We left at about 15:30 PDT

Field Data

No tank data

No TZ Well data found

No TZ Moisture Point data found

No VR Moisture Point data found

No TZ grass heigth found

No VR grass heigth found

No TZ Tree DBH found

No water potential data found

No TZ Grass Biomass data found

No TZ OakLeaves Biomass data found

No TZ PineNeedles Biomass data found