AN OBSERVATION SYSTEM FOR ENERGY AND MATERIAL CYCLING IN FOREST ECOSYSTEMS

1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 04556008
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 土壌・肥料
• Research Institution: HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: SAKUMA Toshio HOKKAIDO UNIV., FACULTY OF AGRIC., PROFESSOR, 農学部, 教授 (50001756)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KURAMOCHI Kanta HOKKAIDO UNIV.FACULTY OF AGRIC.ASSIS.PROFESSOR, 農学部, 助手 (00225252) ; TANAKA Yumiko EXPERIMENT FOREST, FACULTY OF AGRIC.HOKKAIDO UNIV.INSTRUCTOR, 農学部・附属演習林, 技官教務職員 (60221397) ; SATOH Fuyuki EXPERIMENT FOREST, FACULTY OF AGRIC., HOKKAIDO UNIV.ASSIS.PROFESSOR, 農学部・附属演習林, 助手 (20187230) ; HATANO Ryusuke HOKKAIDO UNIV.FACULTY OF AGRIC.ASSOC.PROFESSOR, 農学部, 助教授 (40156344) ; FUJIWARA Koichiro EXPERIMENT FOREST, FACULTY OF AGRIC., HOKKAIDO UNIV.PROFESSOR, 農学部・附属演習林, 教授 (00001503)
• Project Period (FY): 1992 – 1993
• Keywords: Environment Measuring / Low Temperature Instrumentation Trouble / Forest Environment / Forest Soil Environment / Multiple TDR Moisture Meter / Soil EC-Meter / Micro-Climate Observation System / Data Transmission

Research Abstract

An observation system, including solar battery aided DC power sources, data processor, logger, and transmission devices, was designed to observe micro-climate and soil items, such as solar radiation, air temperature, humidity, wind speed, soil temperature, soil water suction, volumetric soil water content and so on, in forested mountainous areas without any AC-source. Feasibility tests for the system was conducted from August 1992 to February 1994 at Nakanomine, Teshio (N.44。 59^-, E.142。 08^-, altitude 330m). Major devices, e.g.data processor, logger and transmission devices worked well even under very severe winter condition. However, the capability of the DC power source apparatus was strongly reduced by snow deposition upon solar battery pannels suring early winter. Frequent maintainance works at least 1/month was required to avoid erroneous works of the system due to shortage of DC power supply in winter.
A TDR soil moisture meter was satisfactorily introduced to the system but it's low efficiency of electric power saving was some-what problematic. It was recommended that an exclusive DC-source for the TDR moisture meter must be provided to avoid erroneous works of the whole system. A small flow-type electric conductivity sensor was also developed for forest soils.