IN23A-1072: Life Under Your Feet: A Wireless Soil Ecology

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IN23A-1072 Life Under Your Feet A Wireless Soil
Ecology Sensor Network K. Szlavecz1, A. Terzis1,
R. Musaloiu1, A. Szalay1, J. Gupchup1, C.-J.
Liang1, L. Xia1, J. Cogan1, J. Silverman1, C.
Swarth2, S. Matthews2, E. Ellis3 1The Johns
Hopkins University 2Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary,
MD, 3University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Sensor Network Technology
Timestamp Reconstruction
Architecture
Koala is an ultra efficient data retrieval
system designed specifically for long term
environmental monitoring networks such as ours.
Sensor Networks run on a fixed power budget .
Koala is specifically optimized to minimize the
amount of radio communication thereby minimizing
power cost and facilitating periodic data
downloads

• No Time-Synchronization (save power)
• Measurements as Local Timestamps
• Post Mortem Timestamp Reconstruction
• Algorithm is robust to Mote Reboots, Gateway
  Failures

• 6-hour data downloads
• Ultra-Efficient data collection protocol (Koala)
  
• Data Authentication protected using SHA-1
• 2-phase Data Loading Pipeline
• Deployment Specific Phase Stage
• Deployment Independent Phase Science
• Health Monitoring Report Generation System

Koala

• Per-mille (0.1) duty-cycles
• Bulk download of data
• Low Power Probing (LPP) efficient network
  wake up
• Flexible Control Protocol (FCP) Network
  Discovery and download

Data Access

• Data available using Microsoft SenseWeb
• Download data from Website

http//www.lifeunderyourfeet.org/
Jug bay Deployment

• Deployment Details
• Period July 29 present
• Stations 31
• Location Carney, MD (co-located) near a CO2
  flux tower
• Sensors
• Soil CO2
• Soil Temperature, Moisture
• Ambient Temperature, Light, Humidity

• Deployment Details
• Period July 13, 2008 present
• Stations 19
• Location JHU, Baltimore MD
• Sensors
• Soil Temperature, Moisture
• Ambient Temperature, Light, Humidity
• Vaisala WXT Weather Station

• Deployment Details
• Period June 25 Nov 2008
• Stations 7
• Location Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, MD
• Sensors
• Soil Temperature, Moisture
• Ambient Temperature, Light, Humidity

Motivation

• Koala and the 2-phase loading architecture were
  exhaustively tested in this deployment
• What is the spatial pattern of soil moisture and
  temperature in different microhabitats?
• Does earthworm distribution reflect this
  pattern?

Motivation
BT1 Hatched Sep 27th 2008

• Gender of turtles is determined by temperature
  during incubation of eggs
• Global warming may affect hatching success and
  sex ratio
• This is part of a larger turtle monitoring study
  in Maryland

Cub Hill Deployment
Olin Deployment
Motivation
Understanding coupled carbon and water cycle in
urban ecosystems (The Baltimore Ecosystem Study
LTER, www.beslter.org) The effect of land use,
land cover and land management on soil
characteristics and soil biogeochemical processes
Earthworm Biomass (g/m2)
This study was supported by Microsoft Research,
NSF EEC-0540832 (MIRTHE-ERC), NSF DEB-0423976,
DHS N00014-D6-1-0991(PACER)