Center for Embedded Network Sensing

Cool ambient air temperatures and warm soil and rock surfaces in alpine fellfield ecosystems produce sharp and dynamic spatial gradients in surface temperatures, with profound impacts on plant ecophysiology. Spot measurements of plant and soil surface temperatures are not sufficient to understand the complexity of this environment. Thermal scanner instrumentation mounted on a NIMS-RD system can provide dense measurements of spatial and temporal patterns of surface temperatures across a fellfield habitat, as well as a photographic log of transect position.