[HubbardBrookISE] ISE Updates

[Rustad, Lindsey -FS]

Dear ISER's,
We had a great week last week and are off to a busy start this week!  Updates:

1.        Inner Plot and Instrument Locations:  With just a few responses back, we decided to go with a fixed design for the location of the sub plots within the main plots.  This seems to keep the overall confusion lower. We did however randomize where to put the monitoring equipment in the sub-plots.  In brief, we sub-divided each sub-plot (on paper) into 25 sub sub plots, and then used a random number generator to assign instrumentation to one of the 25 m2 sub sub plots.  Geoff and I took this plan out to the field to try it out.  We laid out tapes, and assessed the target location for lysimeters (first, because they are the most difficult to locate), soil sensors( second), and then TSR and trace gas collars.  If the randomly assigned sub sub plot was not suitable, we had a list of sequential randomized locations to go to next. We did this together for plot 1 and it seemed to work pretty.  Geoff will take a couple helpers out today and tomorrow and assign lcoations for the other 9 plots.  I will be out in the field on Thursday and will look over every plot as a double check.  There may still be some last minute changes, but at least we have a blue print on how to proceed.  Attached is the maps that we are starting with, including the random numbers for additional plots at the bottom of each page.  Many thanks to Wendy Leuenberger for making the randomized maps!

2.       Soil Respiration Collars:  The crew has been busy cutting and sanding 80 TSR collars.  Alexis from Cornell should arrive today, and will start installing them according to the design in (1) tomorrow.  She and three of our staff will receive training on the LiCor on Wednesday, and will then go out and do a first round of measurements Thursday and Friday (although we know these data will reflect installation disturbance).  We will then sample 5 or 6 more times this year for pretreatment measurements.

3.       Root ingrowth cores: Geoff excavated enough soil for 4 ingrowth cores per plot (40 total) last week. The crew has been busy sieving it today and will install cores later in the week into the disturbance sub plots (design still to be worked out).  We installed 48 of these on the Droughtnet plots last week, so the crew is trained and ready to go.  Thanks to Matt Vadeboncoeur for help with this method!  Alex will then take the removed cores back to Cornell for sorting for standing root crop.

4.       Tree tags - In between efforts, the crew has been trained to tag trees.  Paul, we are slowly dong a complete inventory of all trees > 5 cm on the plots.  I think there will be a few more trees per species than our original count, but likely still not as many as would be ideal.  We will send along some of the data sheets later this week to give you a sense of numbers.

5.       Coarse Woody Debris Question:  We started with a 1 x 1 m plot in each of the 8 inner plot sub plots for coarse woody debris (total 8 m2).  That 'felt' too small when we were out there.  However, a 2x2 -m CWD  is  a pretty big chunk of the 5 x5 m sub plot, but is doable.  The idea is to remove the CWD at end of summer (and measure) and then measure and return to the plots any CWD that falls during the ISE.  This may take more discussion in person, but in the meantime, we will save a 2 x 2 m subplot in each of the plots.  FEEDBACK IS WELCOME AND REQUESTED!

6.       Lysimeters and Soil sensors - All the parts have now been ordered or are about to be ordered.  When lysimeters arrive from Denmark, we will have an all hands effort to get them installed.  Same with sensors.

7.       "Away" plots:  The crew has dubbed the resample plots as the 'Away' plots.  John has worked with the Away crew and they are off to a good start, with 3 plots down and 33 more to go.  John is meeting with Paul this week to go over tree coring methods...

8.       Treatment Designations - I am assuming we will wait for the tree inventories to be completed, and then make a group decision on which treatments go with which plots.  I agree with Paul's comment from last week that it can not be completely random.

9.       Katharine Hayhoe reported in that they are  making good progress on their work.  We look forward to a report in the near future!

10.   Budgets - Moving money around is a painful and slow process.  Funds are safely at Syracuse and I have started the FS paperwork for the subaward/collection agreement.

11.   Social Media - We will be launching a FaceBook and Instagram later this week, and postig regularly to the @HubbardBrookNH twitter account.  Stay tuned!

That's it from now.

Best,
Lindsey



[Forest Service Shield]

Lindsey Rustad, PhD
Research Ecologist

Forest Service
Northern Research Station

p: 603-397-7406
c: 603-397-7406
lrustad at fs.fed.us<mailto:lrustad at fs.fed.us>

271 Mast Ave
Durham, NH 03824
www.fs.fed.us<http://www.fs.fed.us>
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Caring for the land and serving people




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