The Central Mississippi River BasinLTAR Site Infrastructure

John Sadler, Ken Sudduth, Bob Lerch, Claire Baffaut, Newell Kitchen, Scott Drummond

USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research,

Columbia MO

CSWQRU

AmeriFlux (Forested)

Tucker Prairie

Prairie Forks CA

NRCS PI Center

MU Greenley RC

MU HARC

MU RC’s

Goodwater Creek EW

Mark Twain Lake

Goodwater Creek EW

Young’sCreek

Lower Long Branch (USGS)

Upper Long Branch

CSWQRU

South Fork Salt R

(USGS)

Centralia(pop ~4200)

Weir 11

Weir 9

Weir 1

Field 1 (ASP)Field 3 (BAU)

Field 2

GW Well Nest

Shop, Storage

30 Plots0.34 ha

18 Flumes

Field 1ASP

Field 1Weir

GW Well nests

Weatherstation

FluxTower

X

Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research in the Central Mississippi River Basin

• Special Section of the Journal of Environmental Quality, 2015, Vol 44:3-96– Introduction and overview– Weather data– Flow data– Herbicide data– Nutrient data– With extensive supplemental online

materials– Plus 4 papers on research, in

groundwater, stream, and lake nutrients, and in modeling in the GCEW

– Supplemented by earlier papers in other journals on sediment data, methods, and production systems

Upgrades

• Stream flow, sampling, and telecommunications– Lower Long Branch, Upper Long Branch, Young’s

• From seasonal to full-year• Telecommunications by cellular modem

– Weir 11 and Field 3• Weirs in place from prior era - install samplers• RF450 telecommunications

– Weir 1 and Field 1• Currently full-year – just upgrade samplers• RF450 telecommunications

Goodwater Creek EW

Young’sCreek

Lower Long Branch (USGS)

Upper Long Branch

CSWQRU

South Fork Salt R

(USGS)

Weir in place, re-commissioned

Sampler and comm upgrade

Seasonal > full-year and comm

Telecommunication Upgrades

• Broadband link to the site– 6 Mbps up, 2 Mbps down

• Wifi at 5 GHz standard within field site– Security cameras, plot flowcams, phenocams– Smartphone access to data from servers, and to internet

• CSI RF450 network at 2.4 GHz– Raingauge network, Weather station, GCEW Weirs, Flux towers,

other outlying sites• CSI RF416 network at 2.4 GHz

– Plot flow, samples, other plot equipment• Cellular modems

– Three largest stream sites – too distant for RF450 network

Broadband,WiFi, and RF4xxCommunications

Common Experiment

• ASP – Aspirational – Field 1– CSW rotation currently, no-till with cover crop– Done by ARS staff– VR Nutrients by crop sensing and soil sampling– Surface flow and sampling in place (upgrading)– Established Flux Tower there in 2015

• BAU – Business As Usual – Field 3– Mulch-till corn-soybean rotation– Done by local producer– Weir exists, establish flow measurement and sampling– Will target Flux Tower in 2016

Weather Station - Specific local tests

• Historical vs ongoing LTAR instruments• Rain gauges– Weighing vs tipping bucket– Shielded vs unshielded

• Soil moisture– Stevens Hydroprobes in SCAN station– CSI probes for comparison at each depth

• Non-contact water stage sensors for bridges

Thank you!