Transcript Automated Minirhizotron and Arrayed Soil Sensors AMARSS

Automated
Minirhizotron and
Arrayed Soil Sensors
AMARSS
Mycorrhizal fungi: different
phenologies in tropical forests
The mycorrhizosphere
Michael F. Allen lab,
U.C. Riverside
The problems we encounter
How many mycologists does it take
to run a minirhizotron?
Sevilleta LTER
Recording data
•
Counts of root tips and
characterization by color
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Multiple formats -> digital jpeg
•
Sevilleta LTER alone: >30,000
jpeg files so far!
•
Extremely time-consuming,
although faster than image analysis
software
•
Monotonous!
•
Inconsistencies in interpretation
•
Problems with recording methods
and field notes
What we would like to do
• Integrate data at multiple scales
– “within a pixel”
– short- and long-term
• Record above- and below-ground environmental conditions
• Automate data collection
– greater frequency
– simultaneous
– response to events (e.g., precipitation)
– remote-control
• Automate data interpretation/recording
– pattern-recognition
– screening of uninteresting images
Scales of measurement—space
Sevilleta LTER, grassland
Soil array schematic
Robotic Design (Mike T)
Proposed remote minirhizotron
nodes
“Egg” Design
signal
camera
How do we
automate image
analysis?
Sensor Array
Field Deployment: preliminary
CO2 concentrations in
experimental soils
Average CO2 concentration
5 cm depth
Average CO2 concentration
10 cm depth
Error Bars show 95.0% Cl of Mean
2000
Error Bars show 95.0% Cl of Mean
3000
Bars show Means
?
Bars show Means
?
1500
?
CO2 concentration ppm
CO2 concentration ppm
?
?
?
2000
1000
1000
500
0
0
Restoration
Res torati on
Control
Site
Control
Mature Forest
Site
Mature Forest
DNA Microarray
• Community “fingerprint”
• How do we sample in the
field?
• Which DNA probes
should we use?
Recap
• We seek to understand the contributions and
responses of mycorrhizosphere organisms to larger
scale processes
• Current methods have a high resource-investmentto-information-gain ratio
• Networked sensing has the potential to lead to
solutions
– Frequent, responsive, simultaneous data collection
– Collection of related soil data
– Software filtering of data, pre- and post-collection