2026-09-04 パシフィック・ノースウェスト国立研究所（PNNL）
A network of autonomous sensors deployed across coastal ecosystems in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic provide real-time data every 15 minutes that are used to refine predictive Earth system models. (Image by Nick Ward | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.pnnl.gov/publications/capturing-critical-ecosystem-controls-points-where-land-and-water-meet
- https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2025JG009335
陸域と水域の境界における生態系制御点を捉えるための総合観測システム A Synoptic System for Capturing Ecosystem Control Points Across Terrestrial-Aquatic Interfaces
Nicholas D. Ward, J. Patrick Megonigal, Michael N. Weintraub, Peter Regier, Stephanie C. Pennington, Roberta Bittencourt Peixoto, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Xingyuan Chen, Kennedy O. Doro …
Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences Published: 23 October 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JG009335
Abstract
Interconnected landscape features such as terrestrial-aquatic interfaces play an outsized role in biogeochemical cycles as ecosystem control points, but it is notoriously challenging to characterize these. Here, we document a synoptic sensor network design that is (a) flexible to accommodate diverse ecosystem interfaces and gradients, (b) adaptable to monitoring and modeling needs of small and large projects alike, (c) standardized for intercomparability across sites and field experiments, and (d) adequately replicated to capture heterogeneity of each parameter monitored. This real-time monitoring of surface water, groundwater, soil, and vegetation supports configuration and evaluation of models that span upland, wetland, open water strata, and transitions between them. We established the network at seven sites along the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie coastlines, including large-scale flood manipulation experiments in both regions. A central design element is “one data logger program to rule them all”—a collection of sensor-specific modules deployed on 40 loggers controlling ∼2,000 sensors, with the goal of streamlining maintenance, debugging, and reproducible data processing. The network generates ∼6 M observations per month, capturing system dynamics at the broad spatial and fine temporal scales needed to initialize and benchmark models; measurement frequency can be modified remotely to capture events. This network design has also revealed behaviors not represented in Earth system models, such as transient groundwater oxygen pulses. Completely documented and open source, this standardized, flexible, and efficient sensor network design can reduce barriers to understanding environmental changes and ecosystem responses across systems and scales.
