Decagon Field Site Photo Contest Winners
In January, we asked you to send us your favorite pictures of your research. Thank you for sharing your research and field experience with us! Below are this year's winners.
First place, Professor Category: Mike Fenster, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA
The "picture" is actually a video on another site
Professors Mike Fenster (geology) and Barry Knisley (biology) were featured in a recent segment of "Outdoors Maryland," which is produced by Maryland Public Television (MPT).
The segment examined issues related to a federally-endangered species of tiger beetle, Cicindela puritana, which inhabits the bluffs and beaches of the upper Chesapeake Bay. Knisley, Fenster and Christine Ebert '09 studied the habitat parameters that control the distribution and abundance of the Puritan Tiger Beetle.
Second place, Professor Category: A.H.M.C. (Ton) Baltissen, Wageningen UR/Praktijkonderzoek Plant & Omgeving B.V.
Title: Wireless Transmission
Measuring with the 5TE sensor water content, EC and temperature in a new (moving) gutter system filled with substrate for different kinds of plants in the nursery-stock in the Netherlands. The system is about 50 cm ( about 20 inch) above the ground (good for labour). We collect the drainwater to recycle water and nutrients, there are sub gutters under the growing gutters. Because we want to use very less substrate good monitoring of the water content and nutrients is necessary. We use the wireless transmission system to get the data into the computer to monitor "on line".
We place the sensors in the substrate of the gutters.The gutter has a open structure, for good root development. The photo shows the system (the gutters) and the EM 50 data collection system, high above the plants. The EM50 has 5 TE sensors logged on. DataStation and Datatrac are also used.
First Place Student Category: Joseph Levy, Portland State University
Title: "Close Encounters of the Bird Kind"
Nature makes the rules when it comes to doing fieldwork. I had just finished digging my first soil sampling pit in Taylor Valley, Antarctica (the heart of the Antarctic Dry Valleys) and was leaning over to deploy my 5TE Soil Moisture, Electrical Conductivity, and Temperature Sensor. Suddenly, I heard the flutter of wings behind me. Flora and fauna are protected in Antarctica, not geologists, even if they are working to determine how permafrost, soil chemistry, and soil moisture combine to make habitable oases in the polar desert. I slowly stood up and turned around, not wanting to startle the skua (a scavenging shore bird with a wicked, hooked beak) that had just landed behind me. Apparently, he was there to inspect the works. For a solid half hour, the skua roosted by my sample site--thankfully he chose not to gnaw on my ProCheck! Then, as abruptly as he had arrived, he took wing: a tan bolt arcing across the confetti-colored glacial pebbles that line the valley floor.
Second Place Student Category: Melissa Kruse-Peeples, Arizona State University
Title: Prehistoric Agricultural Field in Central Arizona
A project researcher walks within a prehistoric agricultural field on Perry Mesa in Central Arizona. People farmed corn in this semi-arid landscape using extensive terrace systems to enhance water retention and prevent erosion from AD 1275-1400. Decagon soil moisture probes (5TE) are being used to compare volumetric water content between terraced field systems and unmodified soils to aid in modeling prehistoric agricultural productivity.
First Place Commercial Category: Sébastien Guéry, Optiriego Consulting, Rociana del Condado, Huelva, Spain
Title: Tradition and Technology for the Future
This photo has been taken in a strawberry farm, in Huelva region, which is one of the main spots for strawberry production in the world. It is interesting to see how the newest irrigation technology (including Decagon Devices) meets tradition, in the person of this young farmer in his farm.
The instrument used are a EM50 with 3 moisture probe (10HS). The technical goal is to assess the farmer every week in his irrigation scheduling. The overall objectives are to improve the crop profitability, and to preserve the local water resource (this area is close to a natural reserve considered as one of most important for biodiversity - specially birds- in Europe).
Second Place Commercial Category: David Tous de Moner, SAF, Spain
Title: Onions and ECH2O Probes
The EC-5 soil moisture probe is to used to measure soil moisture to help schedule irrigation in an onion field.