PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 38: Sensors and sensor networks in ecology
Organizer(s): SD Wullschleger, RB Jackson, and TE Dawson
Wednesday, August 10, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 516 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Sensor network design and deployment for ecological research: Progress and problems.

Rundel, Philip^*,1, ¹ Center for Embedded Networked Sensing and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Los Angeles, CA, 90095

ABSTRACT- Continuing advances in sensor technology, computation, and communication are transforming the scientific enterprise. Environmental biology, like the fields of molecular, structural, and developmental biology, is being re-invented with the application of new technologies, and it is evolving into an increasingly predictive and integrative science. Two grand challenges for environmental biology are to (1) understanding the structure and function of natural ecosystems - including the effect of human impacts, and, (2) to learn how to apply that understanding to sustain natural systems. Advances in information technologies such as computational tools, data communication networks, and environmental sensors will continue to improve the ability of scientists to address those challenges by enabling integrative, multidisciplinary analyses of inherently complex environmental phenomena. Multi-modal, wireless environmental sensor arrays, combined with multi-spectral and acoustic sensing capacities and associated information technologies, are beginning to allow scientists to address myriad questions in many areas of ecology and physiology by providing spatially and temporally dense measurements at scales previously impossible to achieve. These fields include investigations of spatial and temporal patterns in plant and animal diversity, ecosystem structure-function relationships, biogeochemical fluxes, phenology (seasonality) of vegetative and reproductive growth, and ecophysiology. Beyond improved abilities to address traditional questions, these technologies are leading to the conceptualization of a second generation of research questions that will be transformative for the fields of ecology and ecosystem science. Data collected by these new technologies will bear directly on one of the most pressing environmental issues of the century - global environmental change - by measuring the effects of climate change on the composition, dynamics and function of natural ecosystems. We envision the installation, operation, biological research, informatics, and education activities associated with new sensor deployments to serve as a core component of planned National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)of NSF.

Key words: sensor networks, technology, NEON