Projectlog Entries List

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

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

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

Dishes - 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

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

Acid washed dishes.

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

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

Prep LTAR gas vials - Olivia, Brian

Prep LTER gas vials, totes - Stacey

Prepared 1M KCL.

Weigh LTER soil for extraction and moisture - Sam, Jon

WPS Zoom - Sam

Dishes - Jon

Grind SBE 2025 plants -

LTER lysimeter evacuation - Brian, Emily

Replace T1 S4 and S5 - Stacey

Finish M3 switchgrass stand counts - Alyssa,

Dump plant samples - Emily, Glori

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

Prepared Standards.

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

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.

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

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

Onboarding - Sam

Dishes - Brian

Sort ASP2 plants - Alyssa, Jon

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

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

LTER Hydrosense - Alyssa

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

Sort ASP2 plant samples - Emily, Brian, Jon

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

Filter LTER leachate - Jon

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

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.

Prepared 1M KCL.

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

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

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….

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

Acid washed dishes, Acid washed channel 2 reagent containers. Replaced Lachat reagent tubing.

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

Measure and filter LTAR leachate, dishes - Jon, Emily

Filter LTER soil extracts - Brian, Sarah

Reconditioned Cadmium Column. Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250617. Notes from run:

• Sample SF2-1 not run, not enough liquid in vial
• Sample T7 R3-3 Missing from box, not run

Collect LTAR leachate - Emily, Jon

Prep LTAR and BCSE gas chambers - Brian, Sarah

Weigh 2nd April LTER soil for extraction and moisture - Emily, Jon

LTAR, BCSE gas vial and tote prep - Brian

Evacuate LTAR lysimeters - Brian, Olivia

Cut trees on station flag paths in T7 - Emily, Jon

Prepared 1M KCL. Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250603. Notes from run:

• Volumes of flasks when weighing were not recorded correctly, tare was incorrect. Weights listed are now corrected, but this impacted samples filtered.
• Flasks T5R4-1 and T7R3-3 should have been filtered, but volume at time of weighing was listed as less than 20ml. Not run.
• Flasks T6R3-3 and T6R4-3 should not have been filtered, but volume at time of weighing was listed as more than 20ml. Vials were run and results included.

GC Sequence LTAR20260416S5BGC vial issues:
Sample vial 26 had a very crooked cap - was fixed to prevent GC needle breakage, but may have let lab air into sample in the process. Sample vials 139 and 140 were swapped in order in the field trays. Duplicate 3 sample vial was left upside down in the field tray (does this indicate no sample?).

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

2nd April LTER soil sampling - Alyssa, Sarah, Brian, Jon, Emily

Cut trees on station flag paths in T7 -

LTER Series 3 gas sampling - Jon, Brian, Emily, Alyssa, Stacey

LTER Hydrosense - Alyssa, Emily

Lachat run MDARD Climate Resiliency 2025 Soil Set 2.

LTAR Series 5 gas sampling - Emily, Olivia, Jon, Brian, Alyssa (Hydrosense)

Finish N-deposition fertilization with R2, R3. - Emily, Jon, Brian

Lachat runs MDARD Climate Resiliency soil 2025 (dilutions) and Warm x 2025 Soil Nitrogen (Zarnetske lab).

Dishes - Emily, Sarah

Grind SBE plants - Jon

Weigh urea for N-deposition fertilization - Brian

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.

Acid washed dishes.

Reinstall ASP5 main and noNI gas chambers - Brian

LTER N-deposition fertilization, finished CF1, DF1 and SF1. - Emily, Sarah, Jon

Using Urea (46% N), first of three applications for 2026.

1F (all except CF3): 1gN/m2 applied to 10×10m plot, equal to 217g Urea divided into three applications of 72.5g (spring, summer, fall) each mixed with 4L water

1F-CF3: 1gN/m2 applied to 2×3m plot, equal to 13g Urea divided into three applications of 4.3g each mixed with 2L water

3F: 3gN/m2 applied to 2×2m plot, equal to 26.1g Urea divided into three applications of 8.7g each mixed with 2L water

10F (in DF only): 10gN/m2 applied to 2×2m plot equal to 87g Urea divided into three applications of 29g each mixed with 2L water.

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. Reconditioned Cadmium Column.

Lachat run MDARD Climate Resiliency soil 2025 Set 1. Dilutions to be finished tomorrow.

Measure and filter LTER leachate - Emily, Jon

WPS training - Olivia

Collect LTER leachate - Emily, Jon

Prep LTER, LTAR gas chambers; pull ASP5 main and noNI for herbicide - Brian, Olivia

Prepared standards Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250520. Notes from run:

• Samples T6R4-2, T7R2-3, and T7R4-1 were missing from box. Two vials labeled T7R2-2 and T7R4-3 shouldn’t exist. Unable to determine which sample the two vials were mislabeled as and results not used.

Prep LTER and LTAR gas vials and totes - Emily, Jon

Clean boxes and evacuate LTER lysimeters - Sarah, Emily

Fix leaning BCSE flags, cut rees on foot path in T7 - Jon, Brian, Sarah

BCSE Series 2 gas sampling - Jon, Emily BCSE Hydrosense - Alyssa

Fix LTAR and GLBRC station flags - Olivia

GC Sequence LTER20260401S2BGC had some vials submitted out of order in the field trays. All samples were run in sequential order on the GC. Vials submitted out of order were as follows: …148, 150, 149, 151, 152… and …241, 242 ,247, 244, 245, 250, 251, 248, 249, 246, 243, 252, 253…

Dishes - Jon, Emily

LTAR Series 4 gas sampling - Olivia, Jon, Brian, Emily LTAR Hydrosense - Alyssa

Install and fix LTER and LTAR station flags - Jon, Emily

Dishes - Brian

BCSE and LTAR gas vial and tote prep - Brian, Sarah

LTER soil and LTAR Lysimeter filtering - Brian, Emily, Jon

BCSE and LTAR gas frame prep. All LTAR gas frames given colored flags that match gas sampling grouping - Sarah, Brian

Collect LTAR Lysimeters and O-rings from field (to be washed).

Evacuate LTAR Lysimeters - Jon, Brian

Forest Maintenance - Brian, Emily

Help move OTC’s in T7- Jon

Prepared 1M KCL, standards.

Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250506. -Sample DF3-1 was missing from set. Vial DF3-3 should not exist, ran as sample DF3-1.

LTER Soil extraction - Emily, Olivia

Dishes- Jon

LTER 1st April soil sampling and sieving - Alyssa, Jon, Emily, Brian, Sarah.

Weigh and filter LTER Lysimeters - Jon, Emily

GC Sequence LTAR202603250402S2S3BGC had one set of sample vials out of order, as submitted by Techs. Vials were in no discernable order for that last rack so recorded in this order: 189,190,191,172,169,186,187,176,173,182,183,180,177,178,179,184,181,174,175,188,185,170, 171,192. Could be read in the opposite order as well? Anyhow, all samples run on GC in sequential order. Will look to see if this rack simply got jumbled up in the transport from field to lab.

Acid washed dishes.

Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250421. Run notes:

• Samples T1 R2-2 and T7 R2-1 should have samples, but no vial was in sampled box, skipped.
• Sample CF1-1 has no vial, should exist. Vial labeled as CF1-6 does not have enough volume listed to filter, ran as CF1-1.

Collect LTER Lysimeters - Jon AM/PM, Emily PM

Install LTER station flags - Emily AM, Brian AM/PM, Olivia PM

LTER Series 2 gas sampling - Emily, Brian, Sarah, Jon, Alyssa/Stacey

LTER Hydrosense - Alyssa

Filter LTAR soil extracts - Jon

Weigh LTAR soil for extraction and moisture - Brian, Olivia

Prep LTER, LTAR gas vials - Emily

Prepared 1M KCL, Lachat run LTER Lysimeter 20250408.

Replaced end filter and 4th cartridge filter on Barnstead nanopure. Ran water test on Lachat, filter seems to be functioning normally again.

Prep LTER gas chambers, install T7, T7 micro and T8. T7 R1,3,4 microplot chambers were installed too far north and outside the microplot - had to be reinstalled just prior to sampling 4/1) - Emily, Jon

Prep LTAR gas chambers, reinstall ASP4, ASP5 and installed for the first time ASP2, ASP4, and ASP5 noNI subplot chambers. New chambers were measured for installation: 20m from the south side and 3m east or west from the plot edge (opposite side from the main plot chamber) - Jon, Brian

Burn all six T7 plots and former CE study - Stacey, Kevin, Sven, Joe, Ethan, Jarrod, Mark, Hsunyi, YJ, Alyssa, Emily, Brian, Jon, Elaine, Lucas, Erica, Holly

LTAR March soil sampling. No longer sampling R5 plots (may resume later this year). First time sampling no Nitrification Inhibitor (no NI) subplots in ASP2, ASP4, ASP5, these are on the opposite side of the plot from the main plot gas chambers, 15 feet wide. In the noNI subplots, six cores were taken in roughly the center of the subplot strip and in line EW with station 1,2,3, two cores per “station”, one in the row and one between. In the main plot station 1 and 2 were sampled NW of the station while station 3 was sampled east of the station to avoid the noNI subplots. - Alyssa, Brian, Jon, Emily

Sieve LTAR soil - Alyssa, Brian, Jon, Emily

Uploaded GLBRC MLE MC (Lake City) 20251125 soil samples. We used the re-extracted G11 soil samples in place of the original samples due to possible incorrectly labeled vials.

All 2025 LTER, LTAR, and GLBRC Lachat soil run uploaded.

Measure and filter LTAR leachate; dishes - Brian, Olivia

Collect LTAR leachate - Brian, Alyssa

Acid washed dishes.

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

Finished GLBRC Microplot soil 20251203 Lachat run and Re-extracted GLBRC MLE MC (Lake City) soil 20251125.