Projectlog Entries List

Air Temperature sensor at the Hancock Weather station failed. It’s returning -100 C. and 112 logger is having trouble sending data.

I stopped the program to help with the download but it had no effect. I will restart the program.if I can’t get it to download and check in a few days. The status table can be read but the status summary is empty.

tower 4 (BAU1) ground sensors removed for side dressing around 10AM. Reinstalled around 330PM.

Evacuate LTER lysimeters - Sam, Emily, Glori

Field lab cleaning and organization - Brian, Jon, Emily, Sam, Glori, Bella, Jordyn

Pack CN - Jordyn, Bella

Weigh LTER T3, T4 cover crop plants, then LTAR ASP2 - Bella, Brian, Jordyn

Acid washed dishes.

Finished dilutions for Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250929.

LTAR 12 gas sampling - Brian, Jon, Glori, Jordyn

LTAR Hydrosense- Emily

Remove and replace T4 T-posts during rotary hoeing - Olivia

NAS gas and hydrosense sampling - Olivia

Dump plant and soil samples - Emily, Jon

LTAR Tower 3. EE-181 probe, Adjusted the range to 1V and made sure the wires were connected. It’s sending reasonable values now.

Data entry - Brian, Jordyn

Dishes - Glori

Weigh soil tins - Jordyn

Pack CN - Emily, Olivia

Pack CN - Jon, Sam

LTAR gas vial, tote prep - Glori

Dishes - Jon, Jordyn

Sort ASP1 plants - Brian, Emily

Prepared Ammonium Chloride Reagent (4L): 320 gms Ammonium Chloride 4.0 gms EDTA pH to 8.45 with NaOH, store.

Reconditioned Cadmium Column.

Lachat runs LTER Lysimeters 20250908, 20250929.

BCSE 7 Gas sampling - Glori, Sam

BCSE Hydrosense - Emily

LTAR gas chamber prep - Jordyn, Brian

power cycled cell modem at Lux Arbor to restore connection. Adjusted solar panels to the summer position.

Prep BCSE gas frames - Emily, Bella

Collect LTAR Lysimeters - Glori, Jordyn

Sticky traps, install T-posts in T4 - Brian, Jon, Sam

Prepared Standards, Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250814

Sort ASP1 plants - Olivia am/pm

Measure and filter LTAR leachate - Jordyn, Glori

Filter LTER Soil extracts - Emily, Bella

Prep BCSE gas vials, totes - Emily, Bella

cleaned out cocoons from the strain gauge at the weather station raingauge.

Prepared 1M KCL. Acid washed dishes.

Sticky traps (install T1-3) - Emily, Jon, Sam

Install T4 short station flags - Brian

Evacuate LTAR lysimeters - Alyssa, Jordyn

Weigh LTER soil for extraction and moisture - Glori, Sam

Dishes - Jordyn, Glori

LTER soil sampling - Alyssa, Jordyn, Bella, Glori, Emily, Jon, Sam

ASP1 forage sampling; stations 1, 2, 3: 0.5mS, 0.5mE to NW corner of 2 x 0.5m frame, oriented with the 0.5m ends on the east and west. Adjust S2, if necessary, to avoid sampling any closer than 1m from the plot edge. Clip all plants rooted inside the frame as close to the ground as possible without collecting litter or soil. Put clipped plants into paper bag(s) LIVE. Store samples in closed black bags in a refrigerator until sorting. Sort plants as follows, in the field lab: MEDSA, Medicago sativia, alfalfa; TRFPR, Trifolium pratense, red clover; CICSP, Cichorium spp, six-point chicory; DACGL, Dactylis glomerata, orchard grass; BRSNA, live volunteer canola; remainder label UNSRT. -

Nitrogen Application Study (NAS) gas and Hydrosense sampling - Olivia

cleaned out raingauge on the BCSE

Adjusted the sonic_azimuth of the 4 towers to 225 degrees. For some reason I had 255 degrees. The correction was made between 12:00 and 13:00. I will adjust the past values to subtract 20 degrees.

On towers 3 and 4:

The EE181 probes were on switched power, I’m going to turn on the switched power at the beginning of the slow sequence and not turn it off again. The first measurement after a restart might be wonky, since the sensor takes 2 seconds to warm up.

On tower 4 we are getting reasonable values, on tower 3 we are getting NaN’s.

I changed the default multiplier on the apogee sensor from -1 to 1, the Apogee voltage or the connections are reversed from the CS310. The correction factor is 100.

Replaced wind sensors at the pondlab weather station. Replaced the humidity sensor HMP45C. Replaced the battery, and replaced the existing solar panel with one of the REX panels in an attempt to maintain the voltage a little better.

Measure and filter LTER leachate - Alyssa, Jon, Sam

Install chambers just prior to sampling LTER gas: T1R3, T1R2, T4R1, T1R4, T1R1, T2R2. LTER 6 gas sampling - Brian, Glori, Jon, Sam, Emily, Jordyn, Alyssa

LTER Hydrosense - Emily

Collect LTER mainsite leachate - Alyssa, Jon, Sam

Updated program on tower 4 (BAU) with updated CNR4 calibration factors

Prepared Standards.

Lachat run LTER Lechate 20250721. Notes from run:

• Sample vials T7 R3 1, 2, and 3 were missing from set. Vials labeled T6 R3 1 and 2 do not have enough volume listed to be filtered and should not exist. Ran Vials T6 R3 1 as T7 R3 1 and T6 R3 2 as T7 R3 2. T7 R3 3 not run.

BCSE 6 gas sampling - Jordyn, Glori

BCSE Hydrosense - Emily

LTER gas chamber prep - Brian, Sam

Collect LTER forest leachate, evacuate LTER mainsite lysimeters - Emily, Jon, Brian

LTER gas vial prep - Jon

Prepared 1M KCL.

Weigh LTAR soil for extraction and moisture - Brian, Olivia

Connected ltar tower 4 (BAU) with the wifi connection. Reinserted one heat flux plate and connected the VOLT116 to the datalogger.

LTAR 11 gas sampling - Glori, Jordyn, Jon, Sam, Bella (w/Jon or Sam)

LTAR Hydrosense - Emily

Evacuate LTER forest lysimeters, trim forest paths - Olivia, Bella, Jordyn, Glori

Sticky traps - Emily, Sam, Jon, Brian

LTAR soil sampling - Alyssa, Glori, Jordyn, Bella, Jon, Brian

BCSE G1,3-5 gas chamber prep - Jon, Brian

Sticky traps - Emily, Sam

LTAR gas chamber prep -

ASP3 cover crop plant sampling; stations 1, 2, 3: 0.5mS, 0.5mE to NW corner of 2 x 0.5m frame, oriented with the 0.5m ends on the east and west. Adjust S2, if necessary, to avoid sampling any closer than 1m from the plot edge. Clip all plants rooted inside the frame as close to the ground as possible without collecting litter or soil. Sort plants as follows, in the field: SECCE, Secale cereale, cereal rye; CAMSA, Camelina sativa, winter camelina; UNSRT, all other clipped plants. -

Acid washed dishes (acid washed all channel 1 reagent containers).

Reconditioned Cadmium Column.

Prepared Color Reagent (2 L) 200 ml phosphoric acid 80 gm sulfanilamide, 2.0 gm N-1-naphthylethylenediamine dihydrochloride, Dilute to 2L with Nanopure H2O.

Lachat run SWF 2024 Lysimeters Set 4 dilutions.

BCSE Series 5 gas sampling - Jordyn and Glori paired with Brian and Jon

BCSE Hydrosense - Emily

Nitrogen Application Study (NAS) pre-plant gas, soil and Hydrosense sampling - Olivia, Alyssa trained on Hydrosense

Field lab clean-up, dump old samples, put soil (LTER 4/6/2026 and T3, T4 5/18/2026) out to air dry, organize sticky trap binder, weigh dry soil tins - Jon, Olivia, Emily, Jordyn, Glori, Brian

LTAR Series 10 gas sampling - Jordyn trained with Alyssa, Sam, Jon, Brian, Glori (accompanied another tech)

Install BCSE G1,3,4,5 gas chambers, then LTAR Hydrosense - Emily

Install short flags in T3 - Brian, Glori

Connected the Volt116 to the datalogger at tower 3 (ASP) and updated the heat flux plate calibration factors. Adjusted the azimuth to 255.

Installed the access point at the plant ecology field lab.

Dishes - Jon, Emily

Finished grinding SBE plants - Sam

BCSE gas vial, tote prep; WPS training - Jordyn

Prepared Standards.

Prepared fresh Phosphate Buffer (1L) 28 gms Sodium Hydroxide pellets 50 gms sodium phosphate dibasic heptahydrate dilute to 1 L with nanopure.

Prepared EDTA Reagent (1L) 66 gms ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium salt dihydrate (EDTA) Approximately 7.0 gms sodium hydroxide pellets ph to 7.03 with NaOH pellets then dilute to volume with nanopure.

Lachat run SWF 2024 Lysimeters Set 4 (20456-20498)

• Samples 20499-20514 were not run, unable to locate samples.

LTAR gas vial, tote prep - Glori, Olivia

Measure and filter LTAR leachate - Jordyn, Bella, Alyssa trained

Filter LTER T3, T4 soil extracts - Glori, Brian

Grind SBE - Sam

Data entry - Olivia

Collect LTAR leachate - Bella with Emily, Jordyn with Jon

Prep LTAR gas chambers - Gloria with Olivia

Sticky traps (T5-7, forest) - Brian, Sam

Replace station flags, LTER with Trimble, LTAR with Reach - Jon, Emily

Install 10 chambers in Lysimeter Fetch field (NW corner, near T2R6) for pre-fert gas sampling on 5/22 for Olivia’s knifed-in vs. surface applied nitrogen study with Kevin - Olivia, Kevin

Evacuate LTAR lysimeters - Sam, Brian

Sticky traps (install T5-7, install and attach cards to T3, T4 prairie strips) - Emily, Jon

Replace station flags with Reach (Hsunyi trained) on LTAR, file lost from the Trimble - Brian, Bella

Empty Grieve and FSC ovens, dump old samples - Sam, Jordyn

Weigh T3, T4 soil for extraction and moisture - Alyssa, Bella, Jordyn, Glori

WPS site-specific training with Brook on Zoom - Glori, Bella, Jordyn

Safety training - Jordyn

Dishes, data entry - Glori

Prepared 1M KCL

T3, T4 station and prairie strip soil sampling, 4 cores/station and 4 cores spread across the strip avoiding sampled areas, walking paths and no-burn microplot - Emily, Jon, Sam, Brian, Bella, Glori

Replace T1, T2 station flags (in corn row) with short flags - Emily, Sam

Onboarding, training - Jordyn (first day)

Grind SBE plants - Jon

Sieve LTER T3, T4 soil - Emily, Jon, Sam, Brian, Bella, Glori

Field lab clean up - Bella, Glori, Brian

Dishes, weigh dry tins - Olivia

WPS Zoom - Bella, Glori

Acid washed dishes

Lachat run 2024 SWF Lysimeters Set 3 (20401-20455).

Reinstall ASP2, ASP3 and BAU2 gas chambers right before sampling. LTAR Series 9 gas sampling - Brian, Jon, Olivia, Sam

LTAR Hydrosense - Emily

Install T-posts in T5-7 (1.5m NE of each station, to avoid NW where soil will be sampled in 2026) and prairie strips (1m N of Haddad lab transect flags in center of prairie strips) - Emily, Olivia, Sam, Jon, Brian

Sticky trap (re)training on Teams - Emily, Olivia, Sam, Jon, Brian

Tower 1 (Eddy Covariance tower) on LTAR ASP3 F1 scale-up was adjusted for farm management (planting). At approximately 9:30am, tower was raised to 12’7” height, and all sensors brought in. At approximately 3:45pm, tower was lowered back to ~2m height and all sensors re-deployed.

LTER Series 5 gas sampling - Alyssa trained Glori and Bella in the morning and they split up to sample the forest with others in the afternoon, Jon, Emily, Sam, Brian

LTER Hydrosense - Emily

Dishes - Brian

Acid washed dishes.

Lachat run 2024 SWF Lysimeters Set 2 (20330-20401).

LTER gas chamber prep - Emily, Olivia

Collect LTER leachate - Jon, Glori, Sam

LTAR gas chamber prep most, pull ASP2, ASP3; pull G4, G5 chambers too - Brian, Olivia

Filter LTER leachate, filter LTER soil extracts - Sam, Jon, Emily, Glori

Prep LTAR gas vials - Olivia, Brian

Prep LTER gas vials, totes - Stacey

LTER lysimeter evacuation - Brian, Emily

Replace T1 S4 and S5 - Stacey

Finish M3 switchgrass stand counts - Alyssa,

Dump plant samples - Emily, Glori

Prepared 1M KCL.

Weigh LTER soil for extraction and moisture - Sam, Jon

WPS Zoom - Sam

Dishes - Jon

Grind SBE 2025 plants -

Sieve LTER soil - Brian, Jon, Emily, Sam

Dishes, vial prep - Olivia

Safety training - Bella

LTER soil sampling - Alyssa, Emily, Brian, Jon, Sam, Bella and Glori (their first days accompanied Alyssa)

Start M3 switchgrass stand counts - Alyssa, Glori

Tower 4 (Eddy Covariance) on LTAR BAU1 F1 was adjusted for farm management. At ~9:00 am tower was raised to 12’6” height and all sensors removed from deployment. At ~3:30pm tower was lowered to ~2m height and all sensors re-deployed.

Prepared Standards.

Lachat run 2024 SWF Lysimeter Set 1 (20279-20329)

Finish sorting ASP2 plants - Brian, Olivia, Sam

Dishes - Jon

Prep gas vials for fertilization side project with Kevin, looking at gas fluxes over knifed-in vs. surface applied nitrogen - Olivia

LTAR Series 8 gas sampling - Alyssa, Emily, Brian, Jon; Hydrosense - Emily

Pull BAU1, ASP2 gas chambers, plus BAU1 flags after gas sampling for soil finishing and planting corn - Jon, Brian, Emily

BCSE Series 4 gas sampling - Jon, Brian; Hydrosense - Emily

Scale-up Lux Switchgrass stand counts - Alyssa, Olivia, Jon

Finish T4 cover crop sampling - Stacey, Emily, Brian

Reinstall ASP2, ASP3 AND BAU2 gas chambers - Alyssa, Jon

Collect LTAR leachate - Brian, Jon

Prep BCSE, LTAR gas chambers; pull ASP2, ASP3, BAU1, BAU2 chambers for farming. - Sam

Finish T6 switchgrass stand counts - Alyssa, Emily, Sam

Continue T4 cover crop sampling - Jon, Brian

GC sequence LTER20260430S4BGC had a note from field techs that vials 41 and 57 were swapped. GC sequence ran all vials in consecutive order, so these two data points may need to be swapped at the final analysis stage.

Measure and filter LTAR leachate - Brian, Jon, Emily

Prep BCSE gas vials, totes - Sam, Emily

Prep LTAR gas vials - Stacey

Onboarding - Sam

Dishes - Brian

Sort ASP2 plants - Alyssa, Jon

Switchgrass stand counts, start T6 with same frame placement as G4, G5 - Alyssa, Jon

Evacuate LTAR lysimeters - Emily, Olivia

T4 cover crop sampling (same as T3) - Emily, Sam, Brian

Noticed that the funnel was off on the rain gauge. It might have been blown off with the recent wind storms. I re-installed the funnel

Finish T3 cover crop sampling - Alyssa, Brian, Jon, Emily, Sam, Stacey

Reinstall ASP2 and ASP5 gas chambers right before sampling. LTAR Series 7 gas sampling - Alyssa, Emily, Jon, Brian

LTAR Hydrosense - Emily

Switchgrass stand counts… finish SWF - Alyssa, Brian

Dishes - Jon

Sort ASP2 plants - Emily, Stacey

added HFT3 sensors to towers 3 and 4. All multipliers in a spreadsheet sent to Sven.

Sort ASP2 plant samples - Emily, Brian, Jon

LTER Series 4 gas sampling - Alyssa, Emily, Jon, Brian, Stacey

LTER Hydrosense - Alyssa

Sequence LTAR20260423S6BGC had two samples switched in trays submitted from field techs. Samples were all run in sequential order on the GC, but in trays, samples 83 and 84 were swapped from their correct positions.

Filter LTER leachate - Jon

Filter BCSE, LTAR soil extracts, dishes - Stacey, Brian, Emily, Sarah

Collect LTER leachate - Jon, Brian

Prep LTER and LTAR gas chambers, except pull ASP2 and ASP5 chambers for herbicide. - Sarah, Emily

Continue switchgrass stand counts (finished G5, started SWF). For the switchgrass gradient: frame was placed about 1mN and 1mW of the southeast plot corner for both the former H1 and H2 plot halves. Switchgrass cells were counted and then the frame filpped once to the north. So, each plot had 100 cells evaluated… 50 in former H1, 50 in former H2. - Alyssa, Brian

After yesterdays rainfall, we will adjust the soil at the ASP3 flume. Bentonite swelled making the area uneven.

Prepared 1M KCL.

Weigh BCSE 4/24/2026 and LTAR April soil for extraction and moisture - Brian, Olivia

Evacuate LTER lysimeters - Jon, Emily

Start switchgrass stand counts in G4, G5. Using 75 x 75 cm frame split into 25 cells (5x5) each measuring 15cm x 15cm. Started approximately 1m S and 1m E of each station, placed the frame on the ground and counted each cell that had switchgrass growing inside it. Then the frame was flipped to the south and switchgrass cells counted three more times. So, 100 cells were evaluated in total at each station. - Alyssa, Emily

Started T3 cover crop sampling, finished R1. Used 2 x 0.5 m frame. All stations: 2mS, 2mE of each station to NW corner of frame, 0.5m ends to the east and west. Clipped everything growing inside frame and separated in the field to red clover, TRFPR and UNSRT. - Jon, Brian

LTAR towers 3 and 4 powered up on 4/24. Sven to upload program and work on communication.

GC sequence BCSE202604100424S2S3BGC had samples submitted out of order in the field trays. All samples run in sequential order on GC. Field tray samples out of order as such: Series 2, samples 80 and 79 swapped; Series 3, in this order: ….21, 22, 30, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 34, 31, 32, 33, 38, 35, 36, 37, 23, 39, 40….

GC Sequence LTAR20260416S5BGC issues: there was a subset of samples around vial 130 that yielded very large peaks on the FID detector, eluting after the methane peak, and sometimes bleeding into the subsequent injection. These samples were re-run under the same sequence name with “_B” suffix, and did not have the significant extra peaks as the first round. Kevin thought perhaps these vials had previously been used with acetylene block samples or some other contaminant. House air goes through a zero carbon filtration system, so should not have been an issue with these. In any case, the _B sample data may be better to use, as these did not have the interfering peaks that the first injection round had.

Sieve LTAR soil - Alyssa, Sarah, Jon, Emily, Brian

LTAR BAU2 F1 and ASP3 F2 now equipped with erosion/overland flow H style flumes at agreed upon locations (Kevin Kahmark, Brook Wilke, Subahsis Giri).

Kevin Kahmark and David Weed installed a large flume at BAU2 F1 at the southern edge drainage point. We extended wooden walls out and to the east and west 12’ on each side using 2x8 and 2x6 treated lumber and 4x4 vertical posts cut to three foot lengths. We graded the surrounding surface and added Benseal sodium bentonite and the flume front and the wall front sides receiving the surface flow. We extended the wall at least thirty feet with a silt fence. We also used Benseal/soil mixture along the fence.

The flume was leveled N-S and E-W at each site.

The ASP3F2 flume is a 1’ flume, slightly smaller than the BAU2F1 flume. We again selected a landscape position that has the best shot at collecting erosion water from the field. We positioned the flume near the SW corner in an area that looked like it was slightly channelized. Same agreement. The side walls were extended ten feet on the north and six feet to the south of the flume. The same bentonite seal used as previous.

LTAR April soil sampling - Alyssa, Sarah, Brian, Emily, Jon

ASP2 plant sampling. Stations 1, 2, 3: 0.5mS, 0.5mE to NW corner of 2 x 0.5m frame, oriented with the 0.5m ends on the east and west. Adjust S2 to avoid sampling any closer than 1m from the plot edge (shouldn’t be needed). Exceptions to avoid noNI subplots: ASP2 R2 S2 and ASP2 R4 S2, sample 0.5mS, 0mEW to NE corner of 2 x 0.5m frame. Clip all plants rooted inside the frame as close to the ground as possible without collecting litter or soil. Store samples in closed black bags in a refrigerator until sorted, as follows: MEDSA, Medicago sativia, alfalfa; DACGL, Dactylis glomerata, orchard grass; TRFPR, Trifolium pratense, red clover; CICSP, Cichorium spp, six-point chicory; remainder label UNSRT. - Alyssa, Sarah, Brian, Emily, Jon

BCSE Series 3 gas sampling - Jon, Brian

BCSE Hydrosense - Emily

BCSE pre-fert soil sampling. G1-5, R1-4. One core per station, three cores pooled per plot. Where row crop stubble visible, one core in the row, one core halfway between rows, and one core halfway between those locations. - Emily, Jon, Brian, Olivia

Sieve BCSE soil - Emily, Jon, Brian, Olivia

Dishes - Olivia, Brian

Pack CN - Jon

Grind SBE plants - Emily

Tower 3 powered up, red light on EC100 Gas and Sonic. Still missing 107s and heat flux plates. Sven to download program, etc. Set to 2m.

Tower 2 (BAU) 79-2 raised this morning around 930AM to 12ft for planting. Removed sensors. Returned at 1:30PM. Now 2m ht. sensors returned. Down two 107s, and one HFT.

Prepared Standards. Prepared Color Reagent (2 L) 200 ml phosphoric acid 80 gm sulfanilamide, 2.0 gm N-1-naphthylethylenediamine dihydrochloride, Dilute to 2L with Nanopure H2O.

Prepared Ammonium Chloride Reagent (4L): 320 gms Ammonium Chloride 4.0 gms EDTA pH to 8.45 with NaOH, store.

Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250630. Notes from run:

• Sampled labeled DF1-6 was listed as having a volume too small to filter sample. No vials were missing from set, so volume listed may be incorrect?

Tower 4 powered up. No CNR4 cables or HFT yet. Informed Sven. Red EC100 light on gas.

LTAR Series 6 gas sampling - Olivia, Emily, Jon, Brian

LTAR Hydrosense - Alyssa

Replace T6 station flags post-harvest - Jon

Cut back grass around LTER lysimeter boxes and clean inside of box around lid - Emily, Brian