AgroFlux – an automated, experimental sensor platform

Generally, isolation of scientific disciplines has hindered the development of integrated solutions to many pressing problems. To achieve a holistic understanding of responses to land management or climate change it is important, to jointly evaluate complex feedbacks among different variables across spatio-temporal scales, requiring different scientific disciplines – e.g., biogeochemistry, hydrology, socioeconomics - to work in concert. To do so, the holistic, automated experimental sensor platform AgroFlux aims to serve as multidisciplinary hub that integrate process-based knowledge over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales. In its current stage the AgroFlux experimental sensor platform features: 1) an automatized gantry crane robotic system to detect crop phenology (e.g., proximal sensing of spectral plant indices (NDVI, RVI) and IR canopy temperatures), GHG and ET flux dynamics (FT-NSS closed canopy chambers); 2) UAV based remote sensing for upscaling purposes; 3) flexible, adaptive measurement infrastructure (e.g., IoT sensor network, canopy chambers, proximal sensors for NDVI, RVI; IR canopy temperatures); 4) in-situ stable isotope (C, N and water) monitoring along soil-plant atmosphere gradients (flux separation); and 5) experiment based determination of processes within soil-plant atmosphere interphase (e.g., plant-soil feedbacks). The site is embedded within the ZALF Focus Area Quillow (https://doi.org/10.4228/zalf.7161-ft27).