A novel cyberinfrastructure to support research of land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon, water, and energy in a Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem

Background/Question/Methods

Increasingly, ecological research programs addressing complex challenges are driving technological innovations that allow the acquisition and analysis of data collected over larger spatial scales and finer temporal resolutions. Many research labs are shifting from deploying technicians or students into the field to setting up automated sensors. Such sensors can maintain continuous and reliable data collection and provide complex information about an ecosystem at relatively low costs. However, increasing sensor deployment also presents numerous challenges on how to best manage, integrate, and share data from many different data streams.

We present research conducted at a small but heavily instrumented site located within the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. This site was constructed and is operated by the Systems Ecology Lab (SEL) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The research questions at this site are: 1) What controls land-atmosphere interactions in Chihuahuan Desert ecosystems over multiple spatial and temporal scales? and 2) Can new cyberinfrastructure (CI) improve the acquisition, processing, quality, trust and usefulness of environmental science data? 

Results/Conclusions

Researchers at the site study land-atmosphere carbon, water, and energy fluxes in a mixed creosote (Larrea tridentata) - mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) shrubland using > 90 automated sensors mounted on three platforms: an eddy covariance tower built to AmeriFlux and FLUXNET specifications, a robotic cart that measures hyperspectral reflectance from a fixed rail system, and an 8-node network of SpecNet phenostations. Traditional field work is also part of this research.

We also present parallel cyberinfrastructure research from an interdisciplinary collaboration with UTEP’s CyberShARE Center of Excellence. Components of this cyberinfrastructure include the instrumentation, wireless communications, and an information system to automate data downloads, processing, and management. Sharing of information between researchers at the site and with outside collaborators is facilitated by a website featuring a dynamic mapping application, data search and display tools, and interfaces to backend databases, web services, and provenance-tracking modules.  We provide an overview of this CI with live demonstrations of the various tools that comprise it. In addition, we will be conducting research at this meeting about perceived and real disparities in the management and sharing of sensor data at two collaborative levels: within the small academic ecology lab, and between academic labs and large ecological research networks. A survey will be introduced and made available to other researchers at the meeting.