Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites
Experiments using controlled manipulation of climate variables in the field are critical for developing and testing mechanistic models of ecosystem responses to climate change. Despite rapid changes in climate observed in many high latitude and high altitude environments, controlled manipulations in...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3873302 2023-05-15T18:40:31+02:00 Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites Johnstone, Jill F. Henkelman, Jonathan Allen, Kirsten Helgason, Warren Bedard-Haughn, Angela 2013-12-26 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3873302 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082903 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3873302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082903 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082903 2014-01-05T02:10:03Z Experiments using controlled manipulation of climate variables in the field are critical for developing and testing mechanistic models of ecosystem responses to climate change. Despite rapid changes in climate observed in many high latitude and high altitude environments, controlled manipulations in these remote regions have largely been limited to passive experimental methods with variable effects on environmental factors. In this study, we tested a method of controlled soil warming suitable for remote field locations that can be powered using alternative energy sources. The design was tested in high latitude, alpine tundra of southern Yukon Territory, Canada, in 2010 and 2011. Electrical warming probes were inserted vertically in the near-surface soil and powered with photovoltaics attached to a monitoring and control system. The warming manipulation achieved a stable target warming of 1.3 to 2°C in 1 m2 plots while minimizing disturbance to soil and vegetation. Active control of power output in the warming plots allowed the treatment to closely match spatial and temporal variations in soil temperature while optimizing system performance during periods of low power supply. Active soil heating with vertical electric probes powered by alternative energy is a viable option for remote sites and presents a low-disturbance option for soil warming experiments. This active heating design provides a valuable tool for examining the impacts of soil warming on ecosystem processes. Text Tundra Yukon PubMed Central (PMC) Canada Yukon PLoS ONE 8 12 e82903 |
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Research Article Johnstone, Jill F. Henkelman, Jonathan Allen, Kirsten Helgason, Warren Bedard-Haughn, Angela Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites |
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Research Article |
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Experiments using controlled manipulation of climate variables in the field are critical for developing and testing mechanistic models of ecosystem responses to climate change. Despite rapid changes in climate observed in many high latitude and high altitude environments, controlled manipulations in these remote regions have largely been limited to passive experimental methods with variable effects on environmental factors. In this study, we tested a method of controlled soil warming suitable for remote field locations that can be powered using alternative energy sources. The design was tested in high latitude, alpine tundra of southern Yukon Territory, Canada, in 2010 and 2011. Electrical warming probes were inserted vertically in the near-surface soil and powered with photovoltaics attached to a monitoring and control system. The warming manipulation achieved a stable target warming of 1.3 to 2°C in 1 m2 plots while minimizing disturbance to soil and vegetation. Active control of power output in the warming plots allowed the treatment to closely match spatial and temporal variations in soil temperature while optimizing system performance during periods of low power supply. Active soil heating with vertical electric probes powered by alternative energy is a viable option for remote sites and presents a low-disturbance option for soil warming experiments. This active heating design provides a valuable tool for examining the impacts of soil warming on ecosystem processes. |
format |
Text |
author |
Johnstone, Jill F. Henkelman, Jonathan Allen, Kirsten Helgason, Warren Bedard-Haughn, Angela |
author_facet |
Johnstone, Jill F. Henkelman, Jonathan Allen, Kirsten Helgason, Warren Bedard-Haughn, Angela |
author_sort |
Johnstone, Jill F. |
title |
Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites |
title_short |
Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites |
title_full |
Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites |
title_fullStr |
Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites |
title_full_unstemmed |
Controlled Soil Warming Powered by Alternative Energy for Remote Field Sites |
title_sort |
controlled soil warming powered by alternative energy for remote field sites |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3873302 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082903 |
geographic |
Canada Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Canada Yukon |
genre |
Tundra Yukon |
genre_facet |
Tundra Yukon |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3873302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082903 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082903 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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12 |
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e82903 |
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