701-1673-00L  Environmental Measurement Laboratory

SemesterHerbstsemester 2021
DozierendeP. U. Lehmann Grunder, A. Carminati
Periodizitätjährlich wiederkehrende Veranstaltung
LehrspracheEnglisch
KommentarNumber of participants limited to 24.

Waiting list will be deleted September 24th, 2021.


KurzbeschreibungMeasurements are the sole judge of scientific truth and provide access to unpredictable information, enabling the characterization and monitoring of complex terrestrial systems. Based on lectures and field- and laboratory training, the students learn to apply modern methods to determine forest inventory parameters and to measure subsurface properties and processes.
LernzielThe students will be able to:
- explain measurement principles that are used for characterization of landscapes and terrestrial systems
- select appropriate measurement methods and sampling design to quantify key variables and processes above ground and in the subsurface
- deploy sensors in the field
- interpret collected laboratory and field data and report main conclusions deduced from measurements
InhaltWeek 1: Plant-Soil interactions – short introduction before sensor demonstration and installation in forest lab; Scholander pressure bomb (suction in leaves); LiCOR soil chamber

Week 2: Lecture on Measurement Science, overview of water content and water potential sensors; data logging and data logger programming; tests in the lab

Week 3: Introduction on soil physics; Field installation of sensors and field experiment; data collection for a few days; solar panel

Week 4: Soil sampling in field lab including geoprobe measurements

Week 5: Introduction on forest lab - Soil sampling in forest lab; root length density;

Week 6: Lecture on geophysical methods on Subsurface Characterization: Basic principles of ERT, GPR, and EM; simple lab tests on effective resistivity

Week 7: Demonstration and application of geophysical methods in the field

Week 8: Lecture on plant soil relationship; connecting information below and above ground – data analysis

Weeks 9 and 10: Forest characterization/ inventory: Principles of LiDAR; structures and features of the tree crowns, size/volume of the leaf area tree positions and diameters at breast height

Weeks 11 and 12: Eddy covariance methods -Principles for field measurement of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and energy exchange between terrestrial surfaces and the atmosphere; Analysis of measured time series to determine evaporation rate and CO2-fluxes

Week 13: Swiss Soil Monitoring networks – Monitoring of soil water content and potential; climate change and droughts

Week 14: Global data – Global modeling and data interpretation; SoilGrids and OpenLandMap; exercises on Budyko analysis
LiteraturLecture material will be online for registered students using moodle
Voraussetzungen / BesonderesThe details of the schedule will be optimized based on the number of students; some blocks of the course will be offered as well to students of Environmental Engineering