In early August, Andrew and George Koch made a quick trip to Santa Lucia Preserve, near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, for some site maintenance and datalogger code updates. Of the six second-growth Sequoia sempervirens trees they have instrumented over three trips this summer, all trees are instrumented with five Tomst dendrometers, three Meter leaf wetness sensors, and one Florapulse microtensiometer for continuous measurements of stem water potential. Half the trees are equipped with Campbell temp/RH probes and half the trees with the IRSystem MiniBSV 10k Visibility Sensor for fog detection. All sensors are connected to a Campbell CR310 datalogger in each tree. Because logger channels were in short supply, the MiniBSV sensors communicate using the Tekbox TBS06-TS SDI-RS232 converter, connected to the logger’s DB9 serial port. Each tree’s measurement and logging system is solar powered, with Crydom D1D12 solid state relays being used to moderate power consumption. The logger in each tree communicates with the “Brain Box” in Tree 1 via Ubiquiti NanoStation P2P radios; the Brain Box is also equipped with a StarDot PhenoCam, and a SierraWireless RV50x cell modem/router for two-way communications between all trees and the outside world. What a cool project to be doing more than 60 m above the ground!
The photo shows Andrew in the top of Tree 6. The base of this tree is occupied by a giant wood rat nest, and hence this particular tree has now become known as Wood Rat City (sung to the tune of a Guns N’ Roses classic).
