Baltimore Ecosystem Study Soil Moisture/Long Term Ecological Research Network

The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) has established a network of
long-term permanent biogeochemical study plots. These plots will
provide long-term data on vegetation, soil and hydrologic processes in
the key ecosystem types within the urban ecosystem. The current
network of study plots includes eight forest plots, chosen to
represent the range of forest conditions in the area, and five grass
plots. The network is being expanded to include more grass plots,
agricultural fields, urban yards and wetlands. These plots are
complemented by a network of 200 less intensive study plots located
across the Baltimore metropolitan area. See Baltimore's Vegetation
Structure And Its Ability To Remove Air Pollutants And Sequester
Carbon Dioxide.

In November of 1998 four rural, forested plots were established at
Oregon Ridge Park in Baltimore County northeast of the Gwynns Falls
Watershed. Oregon Ridge Park contains Pond Branch, the forested
reference watershed for BES. Two of these four plots are located on
the top of a slope; the other two are located midway up the slope.
Four urban, forested plots were established in November 1998, two at
Leakin Park and two adjacent to Hillsdale Park in west Baltimore City
in the Gwynns Falls. In May 1999 two grass, lawn plots were
established at McDonogh School in Baltimore County west of the city in
the Gwynns Falls. One of these plots is an extremely low intensity
management area (mowed once or twice a year) and one is in a low
intensity management area (frequent mowing, no fertilizer or herbicide
use).

Three grass lawn plots were established on the campus of the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in fall 2000. Two of
these plots are in medium intensity management areas (frequent mowing,
moderate applications of fertilizer and herbicides) and one is in a
high intensity management area (frequent mowing, high applications of
fertilizer and herbicides).

Plots are currently instrumented with lysimeters (drainage and
tension) to sample soil solution chemistry, time domain reflectometry
probes to measure soil moisture, dataloggers to measure soil
temperature and trace gas flux chambers to measure the flux of carbon
dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane from soil to the
atmosphere. Measurements of in situ nitrogen mineralization,
nitrification and denitrification were made at approximately monthly
intervals from Fall 1998 - Fall 2000. Detailed vegetation
characterization (all layers) was done in summer 1998

This information was obtained in part from the BES Home page at
http://www.ecostudies.org/bes/ under data-Soil Moisture data.

The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) aims to understand metropolitan
Baltimore as an ecological system. The program brings together
researchers from the biological, physical, and social sciences to
collect new data and synthesize existing information on how both the
built and wild ecosystems of Baltimore work. As a part of the National
Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Network, BES trys
to understand how Baltimore's ecosystems change over long time
periods. The ecological knowledge helps support educational
and community-based activities, and interactions between the project
and the Baltimore community are imporant components of our
project. Such an integrative project includes many disciplines and
many research and educational institutions, both in Baltimore and
beyond.

This information was obtained in part from the BES Home page at
http://www.ecostudies.org/bes/.

BES is part of the Long Term Ecological Research Network accessible at
www.lternet.edu. Data are one of the most valuable products of the
LTER program. The goal of the Network is to provide fast, effective,
and open access to LTER data. Over 2000 ecological datasets are part
of a network-wide information system designed to facilitate data
exchange and integration to meet the needs of ecological scientists.