Abstract
Interconnected landscape features such as terrestrial-aquatic interfaces play an outsized role in biogeochemical cycles as ecosystem control points, but it is notoriously challenging to characterize these. Here, we document a synoptic sensor network design that is (a) flexible to accommodate diverse ecosystem interfaces and gradients, (b) adaptable to monitoring and modeling needs of small and large projects alike, (c) standardized for intercomparability across sites and field experiments, and (d) adequately replicated to capture heterogeneity of each parameter monitored. This real-time monitoring of surface water, groundwater, soil, and vegetation supports configuration and evaluation of models that span upland, wetland, open water strata, and transitions between them. We established the network at seven sites along the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie coastlines, including large-scale flood manipulation experiments in both regions. A central design element is “one data logger program to rule them all”—a collection of sensor-specific modules deployed on 40 loggers controlling ∼2,000 sensors, with the goal of streamlining maintenance, debugging, and reproducible data processing. The network generates ∼6 M observations per month, capturing system dynamics at the broad spatial and fine temporal scales needed to initialize and benchmark models; measurement frequency can be modified remotely to capture events. This network design has also revealed behaviors not represented in Earth system models, such as transient groundwater oxygen pulses. Completely documented and open source, this standardized, flexible, and efficient sensor network design can reduce barriers to understanding environmental changes and ecosystem responses across systems and scales.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2025JG009335 |
| Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences |
| Volume | 130 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2025 |
Funding
This work was supported through the Field, Measurements, and Experiments (FME) component of the Coastal Observations, Mechanisms, and Predictions Across Systems and Scales (COMPASS) program ( https://compass.pnnl.gov/ ). COMPASS‐FME is a multi‐institutional project supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research as part of the Environmental System Science Program. This project is led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated for DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE‐AC05‐76RL01830. Additional support was provided by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We thank Steven McMurray and Janice Kerns at the OWC/ODNR and Ron Huffman at the ONWR for facilitating site access. We thank Scott Lerberg and Alexander Demeo and the rest of the CBNERR‐VA for providing permitting assistance as well as field support, site maintenance, and travel to field transects established at the Goodwin Islands and Sweet Hall Marsh Reserve components, which are managed by the CBNERR‐VA. The region of Ohio we are studying is the ancestral homelands of the Seneca, Erie, Kaskaskia and Odawa, as well as places of trade for Indigenous peoples, including the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa, Pottawatomi), Kilatika, Lenape, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Miami, Munsee, Peoria, Piankashaw, Shawnee, Wea and Wyandot. The region of the Chesapeake Bay we are studying is the ancestral homelands of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway), Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottoway, Pamunkey, Patawomeck, Upper Mattaponi, and Rappahannock tribes. As researchers on public lands, it is our responsibility to understand the history of the land, the peoples who came before us, and their continuing ties to this place and we recognize and respect them as the traditional stewards of this land. This work was supported through the Field, Measurements, and Experiments (FME) component of the Coastal Observations, Mechanisms, and Predictions Across Systems and Scales (COMPASS) program (https://compass.pnnl.gov/). COMPASS-FME is a multi-institutional project supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research as part of the Environmental System Science Program. This project is led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated for DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. Additional support was provided by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We thank Steven McMurray and Janice Kerns at the OWC/ODNR and Ron Huffman at the ONWR for facilitating site access. We thank Scott Lerberg and Alexander Demeo and the rest of the CBNERR-VA for providing permitting assistance as well as field support, site maintenance, and travel to field transects established at the Goodwin Islands and Sweet Hall Marsh Reserve components, which are managed by the CBNERR-VA. The region of Ohio we are studying is the ancestral homelands of the Seneca, Erie, Kaskaskia and Odawa, as well as places of trade for Indigenous peoples, including the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa, Pottawatomi), Kilatika, Lenape, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Miami, Munsee, Peoria, Piankashaw, Shawnee, Wea and Wyandot. The region of the Chesapeake Bay we are studying is the ancestral homelands of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway), Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Monacan, Nansemond, Nottoway, Pamunkey, Patawomeck, Upper Mattaponi, and Rappahannock tribes. As researchers on public lands, it is our responsibility to understand the history of the land, the peoples who came before us, and their continuing ties to this place and we recognize and respect them as the traditional stewards of this land.
Keywords
- autonomous
- biogeochemistry
- coastal
- hydrology
- sensor
- state change